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As I See 

Nietsche" 



By 

Stephanus Fabijanovic 



Price 50o 






"As I See 



Nietsche 



9** 



BY 

Stephanus Fabijanovic 



Price 50c 



109 Labor Temple 
Los Angeles 
California 
1920 



>4ft 






Gift 
Author 
I 



3 



As I See: Nietsche 

By Stephanus Fabijanovic 

I. 

Nothing in all my life has proven harder to me, or a more difficult 
task than to have to speak of other men and to apply to my life the 
lessons learned from their growth. My investigation in that direction 
has taught me that human beings, apparently so near to each other, are 
in fact in their innermost being widely apart, isolated entities, each 
having to pursue his or her own path through life. Though at all times 
in the history of mankind there has been in evidence some form of col- 
lectivity of a people or of a state regulating every-day life, Ave neverthe- 
less perceive at the bottom merely a historic incatenation of isolated 
cases and isolated incidents to teach each isolated individual a perhaps 
differently interpreted lesson as applied to his or her own life. Out 
of the individually varying cumulation of just such isolated cases and 
isolated incidents, human beings have written down their own interpre- 
tations and applications for a history of a collectivity of a people, or of 
a state. A work of this kind at all times necessitated some form of 
organization, which took mankind thousands of years in its making. 
Nothing can grow out of nothing. Everything must needs have some 
substantial beginnings. If we go to the bottom of the history of organiza- 
tion and look for its hidden roots, we will always find : that their basic 
motive is some idea "or trend of thought germinated by human associa- 
tion, an idea which grows in scope and depth in the fostering organizing 
efforts and which aims at establishing itself in absolute power over and 
above all other ideas or thoughts. If we look farther back into the past 
of the race and turn the pages of the history of Greece, from whence 
our present civilization can be traced in more than one sense, we soon 
notice two diametrically opposed ideas or trends of thought, bitterly 
struggling for supremacy over and above this world — two ideas which 
might be symbolized as Apollo and Dionysos. 

It is from this perspective that Nietzsche wrote his first book. Since 
it is my intention to write of Nietzsche himself, as well as of his work as 
I perceive them both in their relation to my own self, I must needs start 
out from the above mentioned two fundamental ideas or trends of 
thought. Apollo represented in the cult and culture of Greece the 
enormous pedestal upon which a whole world of huge Gods manifested 
themselves in splendor. This manifestation displayed a glorious super- 
abundance, leading to a wonderfully ornamented heavenly bliss, but 
utterly disregarded all human duties. In Apollo trend of thought every- 
thing is deified unquestioned, be it "Good or Evil." Yet in the midst 



of this (by its spokesmen so strongly declaimed) superabundance of the 
ruling masters, we notice equally the incipience of a different trend of 
thought which perceived this whole world of Gods as a huge joke, if you 
please, in a really comical light. That beautiful illusion was dispelled: 
"Not all that glittered was gold!" That idea and trend of thought 
was represented by Dionysos, who, not satisfied with merely looking upon 
the existing gallery of pictures, dared to live his life in accord with 
ideas of his own. For several thousand years, these two diametrically 
opposed trends of thought have struggled with each other, both sides 
bringing into the field the best they could find, in the everlasting en- 
deavor to establish the absolute domination of their respective funda- 
mental ideas. 

During all the succeeding periods of history, we can witness in the 
arena of mankind the bitter life-and-death struggle between the best 
and strongest champions of those two fundamental ideas and trends of 
thought. In all these embittered battlings Apollo remained the victor. 
These two opposing and bitterly fighting trends of thought, rubbed and 
fussed themselves for thousands of years. On both sides they tried to 
bring the best, so to show their justification for domination. From the 
very beginning there was a furious battle, which overthrew the many 
Gods, but always, in the end, there remained one God on the throne, 
who was glorified with a pompous celebration. 

Fundamentally was carried the fuss and fight for the very beginning 
thought. Down through the ages of history we see how the battle-field 
broadened, also how the struggle intensified. Here the leaders of both 
sides had to calculate, so as to change their places on the commanding 
bridge. "With such atrocious actions, these leaders established even a 
new religion, namely, Christianity, and they had the nerve to proclaim 
that this religion is the real hereditary offspring of a prophet, Jesus 
Christ. On the other hand, everything that was wicked in the system 
remained. Tasks became difficult; harmony never could be properly 
applied; and therefore a bitter fight started between individuals and 
nations. The one side strove to maintain the permanency of their old 
heavenly bliss, and the other fought for their ends. At the same time 
the furious fight was started for the new religion, but fundamentally 
for the ideas of Apollo and Dionysos ! 

On thin well calculated foundation they organized, and with this 
power they crushed small nations and big empires, annihilating whole 
populations, and again building anew to destroy in turn. In all this 
strife and tribulation the Apollo trend of thought remained undisputed 
victor. This retrospect illuminates the unending bitter struggles even of 
our own times. The recognized spokesmen of the powers that be — i. e., 
the poets, the philosophers, the scientists gathered everlastingly, and 
gather even today a beautifully composed data, with which they support 
the necessity of idols. In spite of such an organized power, there devel- 
oped the Dionysian trend of thought. Doubtless there is one and the 
same cause at the bottom of it all. The one system wanted to establish 
and maintain in power the well-being of the material world, the other 



aimed to establish and maintain in power life itself. Neither side won 
out definitely and the struggle goes on unceasingly, now with the sword, 
and now again, as opportunity arises, with the pen. 

At a time when books were brought forth by various very cumber- 
some and difficult circumstances, consuming much time, much money, 
and still more labor, — and later on, when their production was in the 
hands of the inmates of cloisters and monasteries, the Dionysian idea 
and trend of thought had but a scant chance for development; suffered 
from restless persecution and brutal extermination at the hands of the 
satiated and overstimulated in power. Yet this could not last forever! 
From the time when the printing art became prevalent against all ob- 
stacles placed in the way, the pages of history record a far different 
story. Slowly but surely the Dionysian idea and trend of thought came 
to the surface ; found ways and means for expression in spite of all per- 
secution; though the defenders of the diametrically opposed idea and 
trend of thought in power mercilessly used the mailed fist, in order to 
crush every attempt of independent thinking, confiscating and burning 
at the stake all the objectionable new books they could lay their hands 
on, and their authors as well, there and here, and everywhere; some of 
these books escaped and passed on upon their silent revolutionizing 
mission. Thanks to these slips, the individual awakened to self -recogni- 
tion with its longing for freedom, and became conscious of his own 
strength and magnitude. The recognition of self led to a self-conscious- 
ness, to a knowledge, and to a new wisdom which abolished to an equal 
extent the alleged power of God from this earth. Then only it was 
noticed, that the Dionysian idea lifted up its head ever more vigorously 
and its trend of thought spread in wider, ever expanding circles. 

Though through all the centuries there could be found isolated in- 
stances of powerful individualities struggling to the surface to denounce 
the evils, which were a part and parcel of the dominant Apollonian rule 
of iron, it appeared only in the nineteenth century that we met a man 
of sufficient power and intensity to attack promptly and energetically 
the system based upon the Apollonian idea and trend of thought in its 
entirety; and that man was Arthur Schopenhauer, who put the power 
of all his being into the work. For his daring he had to experience a 
grewsome penalty in the recognition of the long-known fact that any 
personal interpretation and philosophy of life must need to stand in an 
irreconcilable conflict and strive with the predominating social interpre- 
tation and philosophy of life. What a tragic side of life had Schopen- 
hauer, the man, to face suffering in isolated agony ! The disillusion and 
disappointment to him, equal to social ostracism, filled his soul with 
bitterness. He took the hemlock cup and choked down its contents for 
twenty years, to the last drop, in little gulps. And when the work of his 
life met with an echo, which brought forth no response, no vote of under- 
standing or appreciation to inspire confidence, he ultimately gave up and 
passed on and out! 

However bitter the tragedy of his personal experience he left for 
posterity, the fact that the rule of the satiated lost its full power over 



the individual diminished the corresponding rejoicing of the adherents 
of the Dionysian idea and trend of thought. The atmosphere became 
pure and refreshed, as by a stroke of Lightning, in spite of the triumphant 
mob at the helm of human society, with all their lashing of all who 
dared uplift their heads. Regardless of the crushing weight of the 
masses of slake threatening to stifle the individual, there appeared in 
the year of 1871 Friedrich Nietzsche's book, "The Birth of Tragedy," 
which communicated directly with the ideas and trend of thought ex- 
pressed by defunct Arthur Schopenhauer. To me personally the fact 
that during fifty years only two books of the same kind were published 
constitutes merely an encouragement and stimulation for the unceasing 
struggle before me, but never a disarming determent. 

With bold audacity, yet nevertheless delicate form and consummate 
art, Nietzsche described at length and in detail the two cultures and 
trends of thought engaged in the bitterly fought conflict. Fearlessly he 
developed the Dionysian idea and trend of thought, giving it a free range 
as befits, in reality, the free, nomadic gypsies and friends of free wander- 
ing throughout the wide world. That was a bad thing to do at a time 
when the German people of the new-born German Empire were preparing 
themselves for the acceptance of a set of new Gods. Heretofore nobody 
had felt a desire to go into the mountains in order to avoid vegetation 
and live in the fullest sense of the word in glorious joy and superabund- 
ance of life. Thus Friedrich Nietzsche had been left by the wayside, 
and without aid ! No one can fathom the mood into which such experi- 
ence brought a man who could at a glance perceive, penetrate and grasp 
the innermost soul of a thinker of such magnitude. There is this marvel- 
ous and very characteristic fact, which we can observe: that, like all 
other thinkers of his girth, he proceeded towards his goal at a slow pace, 
but unswervingly and surely. He listened for an echo, in a spiritual 
wilderness, which became to him a curious puzzle. Indeed, at that time 
he noticed what he had overlooked : that the changed time brought new 
Gods, with which the regular explorers of Gods flirted. Nietzsche set 
about to get a close look at these new Gods, namely, the real product of 
his time. One of them was the author, David Strauss. That one was 
enough for him. Nietzsche tattered his work and wrote a book on 
grammatical defectiveness, which was easily overlooked by the short- 
sighted critics. He pointed out to them the evidences of an unpardonable 
neglect and superficiality which in most cases produced a philistine in 
letters. With this statement he swatted two flies. That is absolutely 
to the point, and to me personally it is one of my favorites; I do not 
wish a better written book ! 

In this work Nietzsche perceived himself as the isolated individual 
in voluntary opposition to and independent from the people. This set 
him apart from his own time and he designated himself as one not in 
accord with and no part of his time, by which he did not mean to be 
carried away. With this action he showed his determination against 
time's drunkeness. Therefore he proceeded with the greatest care, in 
order to hold on, on his Dionysian idea and trend of thought. He cared 



to change nothing in substance ; he merely reconstructed some sentences, 
in order to apply them somewhat effectively to his present. What he 
had to say in his first book directly against the Apollonian idea and 
trend of thought, in which he included Socrates, he practically formu- 
lated again to include the leader of his own times. For we must not 
forget that in the book of David Strauss we find materialized the glorifi- 
cation and almost inebriate cult of the war hero of his times. Nietzsche 
could not stand such a frenzy, and accordingly made a decided stand 
against it; a position too far in advance of the thinkers of his times, so 
that in a far lesser degree than ever before he met with any response as 
echo to his call. 

Such isolation lifted the man Nietzsche onto a road towards truth, 
rich in perspective, from which he never deviated to the end of his 
activity. And as a result we soon see him again at work on a book 
entitled: "The Value of History." He was on the lookout for a value 
for himself alone in the first place, and also incidentally for the people, 
if such were possible ! Again he is busy with a new dissection of his 
web of thought, and in the course of his analysis he discovers a new 
twilight of the Gods back of which a gross military culture uplifts its 
head, utterly devoid of character. Such a statement at such a time 
constituted a deed of daring; for in his work he made it plain how the 
German people were thirsty for personality. With this intrepid step he 
voluntarily severs all connection with his immediate environment, and 
in faultless frankness and truthfulness he assumes the role of the youth 
glad of his fiddle who goes through this world living his own life in 
accord with his own feelings, beyond the domain of the command : Thou 
shall, or Thou shall not! In this self -chosen attitude he became able to 
perceive things in their true colors; how, for instance, by their glorifi- 
cation of victories the German people metamorphosed themselves into a 
historical mummy, imbued with an inexpressible delusion, and how such 
self-praise of their own greatness and glory was bound to lead the 
German people to a premature grave. 

Nietzsche derides this historical man of thought, who on one side is 
the well-rewarded trail-leaving page of the Apollonian idea and trend 
of thought, and on the other poses at the same time as the most just 
and righteous person in creation. It is this that Nietzsche aims at in the 
so-called thought at the bottom of the so-called culture, which by a stroke 
of unpardonable irony had degenerated into a cynism without bounds. 
From this we can see how our author, as a man imbued with a super- 
abundant joy of life, stuck to his Dionysian idea and trend of thought in 
a true philosophical sense. With wonderful artistic skill he pictures for 
our perception how the modern man has been turned into mere spectator 
of the different Gods and idols placed before him. Not even great wars 
or horrible revolutions have been sufficiently powerful to eradicate this 
impregnated habit, — this habit having molded man into a mere speaking, 
writing and thinking automaton, not even daring to change their in- 
herited traditional method of living. Nietzsche could not forgive this 
deplorable fact, and thus he perceived in every great man of science a 



great numbskull, for is it not such that write our histories, and would 
they not know better if they were learned in fact ? 

In passing judgment on the German people he turns cynic himself, 
coming back to his old idea and trend of thought as represented by 
Dionysos glad of his fiddle, and from this rostrum he intimately investi- 
gated the misery into which the world had thrown itself with the recent 
adoption and demonstration of catchwords such as "factory," "labor 
market," and other terms of rampant utilitarianism. In all probability 
all these must have appeared to him as big nonsense, as travesty of cul- 
ture, for the real life of the new culture could not find the right expres- 
sion, since its spokesmen were strongly to be interested in the question 
how the masses could be utilized — i. e., exploited for one money-gxeedy 
individual! As a matter of fact, Nietzsche had in mind the great play 
and the little by-plays of the military culture ! Under such circumstances 
he could not see the least possibility of a new culture, as the cultivation 
of above named terms absorbed an immense time, incidentally completely 
crippling the spirits thirsting for truth. Everywhere we see it evidenced 
that life must needs be a trade of its own, moving on its own accord ; a 
trade to be learned by hard study and application — and to permit that 
would have constituted a menace to the powers that be. If a period of 
time wishes to saturate itself to satiety with a history, it has to go ahead 
on its own accord in self-assertion, and hence the needed time is lacking 
to conceive the indispensable necessity of applied teaching of sanitation. 
Incurable disease alone could develop from such a condition! Then 
Nietzsche reminds his time of the tremendous lies which tend to foster 
oblivion, rendering barely recognizable the horrid chaos of the historic 
Gods and idols hidden in the background of this time. 

To the historic people he wanted to point a way out of this wil- 
derness leading to its uplift. Even his negative recommendation con- 
tained also an indication of the kind of education that might enable the 
people to recognize their own precarious condition. But this book also 
met with no response. So he followed it up with another work— Scho- 
penhauer as educator. In past works Nietzsche had thrown the flashlight 
of his dissective thought upon the eternal conflict of the Apollo-Dionysos 
ideas and the corresponding trend of thought in the human race, as 
well as upon the modern philistine taking under his philosophical scru- 
tiny also the orgy of glory of the history of his time. In the first part 
he says: 

"Why tie one's heart and soul, to this trade or that? Why give an 
ear all the time, to what the neighbor might have to say. It is the 
action of uncultured villagers to obligate and bind down one's self to 
expression and modes of thinking and seeing which some hundreds 
of miles further have no compelling effect in any one! Orient and Occident are 
merely chalk marks, which people draw before our very eyes to fool and exploit 
our timidity. I shall make an attempt to reach freedom, says the young soul 
to iself, and it must forsooth let its course be stopped because two nations happen 
to hate each other and wage war, because an ocean divided two continents, or be- 
cause all around it a religion is taught and believed in which did not exist a 
couple of thousand years before." 

Proceeding in accord with this admonition, Nietzsche says, the young 



man coming to the consciousness of what life means to him, will be in 
a position to develop and overcome completely his past inherited tradi- 
tions, and even blot them from his memory. In such a way the young- 
man thirsting for self-culture can attain the mastery of his own self by 
means of which he may rule and dominate himself and ultimately find 
himself. 

In his well-meant effort by a well-thought-out book to elevate the 
standard of education and thus take a further step in the direction of a 
new culture, Nietzsche entirely overestimated the spirit of the true 
philistine, who, rather proud of the damage done by him, enjoyed his 
new job of administrator of a new empire. Firm in his saddle of glory, 
the newly arrived philistine could not make up his mind to consistently 
follow out this modern education as applied to himself in renouncing its 
historical application, to go, so to say, to a foreign land, eradicating 
from his own mind everything hitherto taught to him in the past as 
truth. It was to him an unheard-of appeal, the portent of which he did 
not grasp, because it mattered little to him if his own actions were based 
upon his own thinking or not. All the Philistine had in mind was to 
make sure of his victory, and that became the highest aim of his life. 
Void of this suggestive bond of tradition, he could not so easily sever 
his heart, and much less was he able to liberate himself. For this reason 
I am not astonished at all that the German world pushed Nietzsche aside 
so rapidly. Fundamentally they paid but little attention to him, though 
the development of things forced them in the future to reach out for 
the writings of the thinker under discussion. 

All the incidents I perceive in the passing history of the human race 
are to me of a grandiose aspect and thrill my innermost being with joy. 
Unfading and unending is my humble admiration. Hence the book came 
to me as a long-hoped-for relish, an elixior of life. When a man like 
Nietzsche introduces to us "Schopenhauer as an Educator," well aware of 
the fact of the benefit which he drew for himself from his writing, such 
prophetic counsels should not be denied due honors. According to the 
theory of Nietzsche it would be desirable to present to mankind, as a sin- 
cere model, men of the type and kind as the author Schopenhauer. The 
race would become hungry for men of such type. But as it is, alas ! How 
astonished we will be, after going through all the lands of this globe, 
practically unable to discover any men of the kind! 

Nietzsche goes still farther, picturing to us in his embodied thought 
the kind of philosopher, and still better he shows how such a philosopher 
could be in a position to uplift a people, leading them onward in his own 
steps. For that purpose he cites the history of India as related by its 
own philosophy, and in application he asks immediately: Why is it not 
possible for Germany to possess a philosophy of its own? In the search 
for fundamental proofs for his assertion he further finds and tells us how 
the imagined typical philosopher of Germany, Immanuel Kant, sinned 
against his own pretended wisdom in bowing to the state and to the 
church, living at perfect peace with the established official personalities 
while all the old customs and traditions remained in nefarious force as in 



the past. How different the life of Arthur Schopenhauer, who consist- 
ently kept aloof from entangling alliances! Then Nietzsche pictures to 
us, carefully, tenderly and thoroughly, the artists who have had the 
courage of their convictions, living lives in full accord with their own 
self-made thoughts. Here he brings before us Arthur Schopenhauer, 
the philosopher, and Richard Wagner, the musician, as real men, who 
should serve us as an example in life. In thoroughness and detail he 
pictures to the eye of mankind the road to freedom from tyranny. 

In this connection he incidentally mentions the poet Johann Wolf- 
gang von Goethe as a sample of what heights man's mind might reach. 
Painfully he lays emphasis upon the gross solitude and isolation into 
which such minds are driven forever. These are the bitterest drops of 
hemlock proffered to such minds, which have driven many intellectuals 
to abject despair after becoming aware of the thorny path which alone 
will lead them and maintain them in such exalted greatness of mind. 
And in many cases this bitter draught is the main cause at the bottom 
of their flight back to the fleshpots of the enemy's camp, where they must 
needs be satisfied with the gnawed bones falling from their master's 
table ! This may sound brutal, but it is the unvarnished truth, and also, 
perhaps the main cause for the fear expressed of the books of Nietzsche 
on the part of the well-fed champions of the idea of wealth. For nobody 
loves to see himself dissected under a flashlight. As far as I am con- 
cerned personally, matters are entirely different. I find, besides my 
hand-labor for daily bread, plenty of time and wealth of patience to go 
through his writings letter by letter, memorizing them in the finest sense 
of the word, learning and through the iniquity of the system of the 
ever-greedy profit-mongers. And with such early insight into the rela- 
tions into which an unkind fate had placed me, I always managed to 
find a brief respite from almost ceaseless toil in order to read books, at 
times even politely refusing offered jobs in spite of poverty which has 
always been with me and is liable to dog my steps to my last hour. 
Here my own philosophy set in to the measure in which I was able to 
perceive the crass facts surrounding such master minds as applied to 
the life of Friedrich Nietzsche himself. I relished his teachings because 
he based his views upon life itself. Digging for the meaning of his writ- 
ings, I penetrated into the true recognition of my personal situation and 
condition in life. No other choice had I than to belong to myself alone. 
Though knowing for a certainty that ostracism would be my only pros- 
pective share in this spook-world of systematized Wiil-0 '-Wisps, I made 
this decision for the sole reason that I saw no other honest road leading 
out of it. The full recognition of this truth closed to me all return into 
the enemy's camp. Only after having truly found and established my 
personal situation and condition in life was I fitted to pass my own 
judgment upon others in their relation to their ideal. And solely through 
the incatenation of such links of reasoning could I fathom from the read- 
ing of the first few books of Nietzsche, the heights he was aspiring to 
reach. One thing especially became clear to me, i. e., that Nietzsche 
wished for the race a life of its own to the fullest measure realizing in 

10 



how far he himself had become prematurely crippled in the employ and 
application of a Will-O'-Wisp spook-world of useless brain work. The 
recognition of his own handicap in life is the key to Nietzsche's unceas- 
ing application and productiveness, I welcomed to my heart the carelessly 
and aimlessly strolling Dionysos who wanted to look at the world 
through the medium of his own web of thought rich in beauty and affec- 
tion, and I was glad to kiss, as a brother in life, his ruddy cheeks. And 
in welcoming the dear guest I was not a victim of illusion, for I fully 
recognized the unavoidable necessity of a great longing for the promised 
freedom, which I wanted to enjoy today ! Thus I had to choose between 
society and freedom! The choice brought in its defense the decision: a 
life in our days lived in freedom, however precarious its aspect may be ! 

For thousands of years mankind has been in search of this only true 
philosopher, at all times failing to connect because they looked for him 
in an entirely different person outside of their own selves and not in the 
particular make-up of self. For this reason Nietzsche never tired, in all 
his works, of picturing to us the idea of Dionysius. This trend of 
thought is especially strong in his book, " Wagner in Bayreuth, " where 
Nietzsche's thoughts seem to reach an apex that makes my reason almost 
dizzy ! That rhetoric of an intellectual man for the purpose of visualizing 
happy Dionysius is a rhapsody upon the musician. 

In this work Nietzsche depicts with rapturous bliss the youthful 
period of the life of Richard Wagner, and his further evolution past 
Dionysian longings. Bitter struggles are revealed to us which in the 
irony of fate culminates in the grim humor of the wandering gypsy. 
Then he pays a devout tribute with incense to the works of Wagner and 
his ideal types which worship each other in devotion. "The Flying 
Dutchman" is received on the knees; a warm hearthstone is secured to 
its producer, where he can find his home and his rest. But between the 
lines one can already trace the bitter struggles of flight. The inexpress- 
ible inner poverty of his environment loomed too gigantic, offering no 
social communion, except with the rowing gypsies and with those ostra- 
cized by the culture in power. We see Dionysos incarnate fight with 
body and soul for his primitive right to decide for himself all questions 
of life and conduct. The gypsies and those ostracized by the culture in 
power struggle and sacrifice willingly for an ideal to live fully their 
own lives, not recognizing in any way a moral compromise. And yet 
Wagner is received at the festive board, received as a great hero and a 
conqueror. The dear home is secure for the artist. We see no end of 
glorification and incense. This seemed to me like a deviation from the 
old Dionysian idea and trend of thought as expressed in the term: "Free- 
dom without a home ! ' ' The old restless fugitive was placed in a position 
to lay down his arms in freedom! 

This picturization taught me that often the best educated man be- 
comes very much in need of additional real life experience. For when- 
ever man has learned his true place in human society he will not cater 
to the artist. At the time he wrote his book Nietzsche did not possess 
this experience in real life. The honest enthusiasm for Wagner culmi- 

11 



nated in a dithyrambus, and he was lifted into the position of a pure 
philosopher. For a long period of time this was a great riddle to me 
which calmed me down in every instance when temptation presented it- 
self to sit in judgment over others. Ever since I have made it the rule 
in my life not to judge in any case until all is well passed and thoroughly 
digested. This gave me back my honest enthusiasm, and never since 
have I felt tempted to place others in a higher position than that of a 
passer-by on earth on the same level with myself. Such musing tended 
rather to strengthen my Dionysian trend of thought, for how could I 
have enjoyed home life at the warm hearth myself otherwise than in 
remaining a gypsy at heart? Steadily I am reminded of Heinrich Heine, 
who only loved those artists that advocated a complete revolution of the 
social system. I was led into properly discerning the differences in the 
aspirations of mankind. The one imbued with the ideals of the bour- 
geoise calls for the double-faced artist of statecraftsmanship, and the 
common people long for a many-sided dispenser and interpreter of life. 
The former will always stick to a pattern of some kind, while the latter 
aspire to a complete transformation of the methods and ways of life 
and conduct utterly eradicating even their roots of milennial age. In 
his book on David Strauss the author under discussion has laid down 
this well-established unchallenged the philistine bourgeoise self-satisfac- 
tion in the whirlpool of national self -adulation and self -admiration of 
his time, and it leads him, in his Wagner festival book, to advocate a 
reformation of the modern man. For such a delicate mission Richard 
Wagner would have been the chosen one amongst all the ostracized, as 
with the aid of the theatrical art he had become the real Anti- Alexander, 
being in the position in himself to unite respectively Christianity with 
Judaism, the Orient with the Occident, as a true oracle of cosmopolitant 
genius, as a guiding star for every free thinker and for every liberated 
soul. 

Let me dwell here for a little while and look into the soul side or 
spiritual side of man. To do this thoroughly I need experience like 
other men, for how easily is man inclined to revert to the race he may 
have come from. If we view this matter closely we observe right in the 
first place the multitudinous tentative temptations which a diplomatic 
and skillful diplomacy of the powers has cunningly placed in the way, 
in the shape of preferred opportunities, do that often even the strongest 
unwittingly succumb to the lure. And the moment one has gotten his 
place at the warm hearth in his home, most frequently, yes, almost in- 
variably, the mere allusion to a Dionysos becomes an immoral act and 
the strictest censorship will be advocated by the one who has just 
arrived at public recognition of his great merits. We should not harbor 
any illusions in this respect, nor is it advisable to pass lightly over this 
contemptible fact, for we must not lose sight of the fact that the well 
organized and exceedingly well informed human society is sufficiently 
clever to lay temptation in the way of the strongest mind, even being 
willing to buy him by public recognition of his merit, by praise, renown 
and glory. Some of the very best have been caught in this cunning fox- 

12 



trap and then turned against Dionysos glad of his fiddle. Suffice it to 
allude in this connection to the splendidly penned and thought-out types 
of Henry Ibsen which visualize to us in wonderful diction the over- 
satiated philistines and bourgeoise who, after the day's well accomplished 
toil, rest up and recuperate for another round in the game, talking com- 
placently of the prevailing general corruption and passing on stale 
jokes dealing with the horrid sexual entertainment of our times, in the 
same tones in which a constitutional old maid might lodge a protest 
against the immorality of Dionysos. How different by far was the life 
of Heinrich Heine. Far from home he died in self-chosen exile, yet a 
free man! But to Richard Wagner a friendly home opened a door so 
that he could sit down at the warm fireside, lay down his arms and 
armor at rest and become moral ! 

When Nietzsche in his "Wagner in Bayreuth" indicates art as the 
saving power to separate modern man from his greed, he was on a blind 
alley, as he soon recognized, which led him astray. Quite naturally then 
Ms aim became to ease his innermost conflict with his conscience by 
doing something for culture but not as a gypsy and outcast, 1 at rather 
as a man of prominent academic standing. Hence he had to appear again 
before the reading and thinking public. At that time he had not yet 
made sure of the fact that he was no part of that society; that he did 
not belong there, forgetting the fine art of living and becoming a mu- 
sician exclusively. But in his book, "The Birth of Tragedy,' ' he tells us : 

"Our art plainly manifests this general misery; in vain is all the imitative 
leaning upon all great productive periods and individuals, in vain is the gather- 
ing around him of the entire world litreature to comfort modern men and thus 
in vain are all efforts to place him in midst of the art styles and the artists of 
all times in order that, like Adam of old to the animals, he gave them names; he 
remains just the same eternally hungry, the 'critic' without joy or strength, the 
Alexandrian man, who at bottom is but a librarian and proof reader miserably 
being blinded by the dust of books and by typographical errors." 

This is proof that something misled Nietzsche, for how could he 
assert that Wagner had been an enemy of the Alexandrian man had lie 
had only music at his disposal? It was hard for me to grasp this calcu- 
lation. The explanation would not have proven such a task of doubtful 
outcome had Nietzsche not inserted an entirely new idea, i. e., that of an 
all-dramatician able and capable to transform the theatrical art into a 
soporific art for limbs worn out by twelve hours of daily toil. This 
mighty dispenser of powerful sleep potations would have to bring about 
a condition wherein we might imagine to have reached the top wings of 
emotion, of freedom and of nature, at the same time remain conscious 
of the bitter struggle for our daily bread, its victories and defects, and 
ultimately considering himself the hero might be refreshed by him to 
new efforts in life. A suggestion heartily to be endorsed but to be 
handled with great care. To us it should not matter so much if the artist 
reaches the height of his ambition and renown, but that we ourselves be 
fitted to fashion our own lives as disciples of Dionysos. This inflexible 
condition alone, this unbending imperative, must needs be the loadstone 
of my freedom. The sweating for others I gladly leave to those who 

13 



like it. For this reason my first duty in life henceforth becomes the 
fashioning, the moulding and the living of my own life! To do that 
properly I first must be in all considerations, free from glorification of 
any person. It is the time to be heroic in the very face of the obstacles 
of society, the time to transform our own words into deeds ! 

Nietzsche had a very good divination of all this, but in accord with 
his own conceptions of life he lacked courage. With this divination he 
aimed first at constructing an artist such as he always aspired himself 
to be in life, but which never existed in reality. Just as Nietzsche previ- 
ously reproached the bourgeoise and philistine for their tardiness and 
slowness in changing their methods and ways of living as well as their 
aspect of life ; he reached through the glorification of Wagner an aspect 
and an outlook upon the art of music and the reformation of the theatre. 
As matters are, I am not in a position to decide if at that time Nietzsche 
had in mind the wisdom of life prophetically seen by him which would 
lead mankind to freedom that the tortured individual might come to its 
fullest unfoldment and development, or merely the simple art that re- 
freshes a few tired people after a day of hard toil. It was all a riddle to 
me if the term "wisdom of life" was to be applied to a general public 
at whose cost individuals might uplift themselves, for in another para- 
graph Nietzsche says of Wagner: 

"When the dominating thought of his life dawned in him that from the 
theatrical stage an incomparable influence the farthest and deepest reaching 
influence of all arts could be exerted, that thought set his innermost being in 
a state of the most powerful fermentation. The incipiency of the thought was 
not connected with or clear beginning and definite action. At the art the 
thought manifested itself almost entirely and merely as a great temptation, as 
an expression of that sinister personal will insatiably crying out for power 
and splendor." 

I take it that this thought was suggested to Wagner as an irresistible 
temptation to his longing: He had willed it to become victorious! To 
look at matters from this angle we are simply justified to assume that 
thanks were perhaps due to the incidence of glorification on the altar of 
his personality on the part of Nietzsche, that Wagner reached the goal 
of his wishes and personal ambition. "If I elevate you, in turn you will 
elevate me," thought Nietzsche, apparently, and lusted for the heights. 
The healthy originality of the book "Wagner in Bayreuth" lies in the 
fact that for all times it offers something for the public meal, from which 
we could see how Dionysos glad of his fiddle became wavering. When 
after years I read again in the book, "Wagner becomes the revolutionist 
of society; Wagner recognized the only poet in existence, the poetically 
creative people," I felt a pain in my breast. Does this call for an ex- 
planation? In his previous writings Nietzsche spoke only of the philistine 
and bourgeoise, but in the further course he burns incense at the altar 
of Wagner, incidentally asserting that the people are poetically creative. 
These words of criticism should not be accepted in the character of a 
personal attack, I merely wanted to place the words upon the balance; 
the scales tipped toward the book and left a sick Dionysos way up in 
the air, leaving Wagner as the great sufferer. Never was I able to 

14 



fathom this riddle, for if an artist has for his aim to amuse suffering 
people and yet at the same time to be their torturer, it is really the end 
of all philosophy! 

I had considered Nietzsche as ostracized by society and accepted 
him as a courageous fighter. But where he declares himself as one with 
fellow sufferers who in turn wind garlands of flowers for themselves 
at the expense of a suffering people, I lose the liking for that art and its 
artists, and I have fully resolved to devote my life to one alone, to 
Dionysos glad of his fiddle ! In doing so I do not make an apology nor 
do I ask for mercy ! Much more could be said in this book on Wagner, 
but soon an opportunity will be offered to point out what a deep wound 
it left in the heart of Nietzsche himself. The book represents the closing 
of a chapter of his life, a chapter which he never could forget, however 
anxious he was to do so! 

II. 

When at my past middle age in life I dwell hidden in a corner of this 
great world, passing in review in my mind and thinking over the hap- 
penings great and small the men, the arts, including artists, my whole 
being is filled with joyful gladness coupled with the sadness of incurable 
pain. I see all things pass by like tales from the "Arabian Nights. " The 
best to me in that passing show are the phases of the bitter struggle of 
philosophy to secure for itself a firm footing upon this world. From the 
beginning up to Nietzsche I see but variations of one and the same diffi- 
culty placed in its path. Time and again a flood of bitter invectives and 
grave accusations have been directed against the men who endeavor to 
give philosophy a solid footing. Among these victims of infamy may be 
counted the many independent minds who, having been hampered more 
rapidly in their evolutionary paths, are stamped as so-called political 
criminals, are calumniated, expelled from the realms of the established 
culture, and often soon forgotten! 

These people I liked best to observe, and I was interested to see how 
hard they tried to break through the enemy's lines, but could not suc- 
ceed, and finally, miserably tired by their efforts, took advantage to slip 
through and over into the hostile camp in order to lighten their exist- 
ence. After donning the glad armor of joyful victory they generally 
fall rapidly upon all efforts toward freedom, and vilify the cherished 
ideals of the past. Not satisfied with that, they even denounce their 
former friends and try to bring them to the gallows, for every living 
witness of a lost manhood was liable to become a stumbling-block upon 
the road of ease. This is the most shameful and miserable end imagin- 
able and might have had no other cause than the superficiality of their 
daily course in their new existence of the most polite submissiveness. 
Very few of them possessed the moral courage of their convictions to 
die in the poorhouse, by the roadway, or in exile. Among these political 
refugees I count Miss Malwilda von Meysenbug. After the German revo- 
lution of 1848 she had to flee and found a safe refuge in London. There 

15 



she hacl a terribly hard struggle for her daily bread. This unexpected 
struggle brought her near to despair, and three times she was at the 
point of committing suicide. Her desperate straits made pressure upon 
her way of thinking until ultimately she changed her opinions. New 
courage filled her soul and a new sun arose for her, when she was per- 
mitted to return to her native land. She took it so joyously to heart 
that she became a real pillar of the new epoch and, mind you, her great 
artist and idol was now — Bismarck ! The principle of liberty and philos- 
ophy became a thing of the past. The German Empire, with its recently 
widened frontier, became her measure of the new art, and the revolu- 
tionist of olden times boasted of her new art. The mere pattern was 
called art, culture, and a guarantee of the safety of the further develop- 
ment. But the pattern soon turned into an impediment and a life of 
insupportable boredom resulted. 

The newly evolved high art of politics and policies smoothed the 
ways for all the old revolutionists. They found a field of activity to 
round out their development. The well established authors wrote, and 
their writings were read. The academically trained orators discussed 
and indeed were listened to. The musicians composed, and they were 
seen, listened to, and well applauded. The finely molded art machinery 
worked excellently to conjure the boredom following the brief period 
of inebriate enthusiasm of the new high art of politics and policies. To 
head off this hardly describable boredom the great festival of Bayreuth 
was arranged. R. Wagner became the undisputed master of the situa- 
tion. The refugees, returned from exile, were only permitted to nod 
approval. But Friedrich Nietzsche also surveyed the spectacle, though 
he absolutely refused to nod approval ! The unexpected events shook his 
innermost being; the whole picture suddenly was transformed into an- 
other world from that idealized in his: Wagner's book written for the 
occasion! This new work, bleak, empty and dark, filled our man with 
horror. He fell back powerless, wondering at the miracle. Profound 
and utter disillusionment gnawed his body and soul like an incurable 
disease, — and whose fault was it? Could the answer to that bitter ques- 
tion be kept forever from the public? 

Excellent observers may not be able to penetrate into the hidden 
recesses of the shaping of things in a life history. An unsolved riddle 
remains. But truth will come out, just the same, in some shape or form 
to give away everything. With the sincerest conviction. Miss Malwilda 
von Meysenbug tells us in her "Last Memoirs of an Idealist" : "The fes- 
tival was so grandiose that I cannot forget a thing of it ! ' ' This I readily 
believe, for a person suffering from insupportable boredom such a 
pageant as a pastime must needs be unforgettably beautiful. How pos- 
terity would judge it was forgotten at the moment; all went there, 
remained at a standstill and simply forgot the art of living "Dionysos 
glad of his fiddle. ' ' That became a bitter certainty for Nietzsche about 
which there is not the least doubt. 

After satiating the great boredom for a while by a great spectacle, 
the different individuals crawled back into their hidden recesses to enjoy 

16 



the well earned rest in accord with the opportunity proffered them. It 
is part of our aim to follow them there to get at the bottom of the his- 
tory. By the road we will always get at the truth and be able to respect 
the men and women involved as far as we know them. One sentence in 
the above referred to ' ' Memoirs ' ' of Miss Meysenbug proves the correct- 
ness of our fundamental assertion, at the same time throwing a clear 
light upon the whole affair: 

"The high sentiment of magnanimous prince assisted here also with a 
helping hand as the number of signed pledges of patronage would have been 
insufficient to bring in the necessary sum." 

Could a clearer and deeper penetrating flashlight have been thrown 
upon the great festival than contained in this revelation? — a light which 
illumines as well the princes, the artists, the reformed returned revolu- 
tionists ; but not lighting upon the gypsies of the established social order 
and upon those ostracized on account of their character? And it was 
these latter that Nietzsche had been yearning for, but, alas, of no avail. 
He did not find them, but in their place he found himself! That strikes 
us hard, because such a sudden awakening and recognition might have 
brought a far stronger man than Nietzsche to his deathbed ! His disease 
set in at this time, and in fact he was more than sick — he was in despair ! 
And the cause ? The untimely festival book on Wagner which produced 
results in fullest accord with the times that were: glorious! He proved 
it thus to himself by taking French leave from Wagner ; a very unhealthy 
procedure, for henceforth Nietzsche lived in a memory. The ill-applied 
enthusiasm of a great heart eternally staring into his face from the 
paper affected his eyesight ! 

This is a lesson to me to aid me in my own experience, and warn me 
that there are moments in life when cruel traps get hold of us and press 
us hopelessly in a corner in atonement for some act committed in the 
past, and hold us there in a despairing bondage. He who cannot free 
himself from such deplorable conditions must needs miserably succumb 
in the morass. A philosophical, investigation will reveal willful cause at 
the bottom of everything. Such an investigation in the case before us 
would connect the sudden indisposition of Nietzsche with his previous 
malady. But did he not meet with disappointment in his life at Bay- 
reuth? There he met the naked truth which was poison for him in body 
and soul. A man at the height of enthusiasm was robbed of his ideal 
and driven to despair! He shivered in self disgust, grieved almost to 
death and hardly could make up his mind to take flight. The world was 
to him inevitably round, and nowhere was there a hiding place. What 
was he to do then? 

He knew as well as I do that there is no hope for our present society, 
and that sooner or later it must break down. I do not say this to stamp 
Nietzsche as a revolutionist. One thing is certain, that he had cultivated 
an intimate and great friendship with Wagner. (Some people go too 
far with this point, but I do not care to mention all that I heard!) 
Through this close contact he learned much of political refugees, and 
with it of the art of living, of insight into social institutions, of the re- 

17 



pairs and their mind they might be in need of. Such ends could be 
accomplished by a well ordered agitation. Nietzsche had been well aware 
of that fact and looked up to the musical art as a means to that end. But 
when he discovered by opportune demonstration what the musical art 
amounted to, in fact, he trembled ! What he found out was a fundamental 
viewpoint, that truth is naked and that no fig leaf of any art is ever 
sufficient to cover up that nakedness! He thought much and well over 
this kind of agitation. The fancied gypsies and ostracized wanderers had 
vanished, and only the proletariat of the large cities was yearning for 
liberation! But that course did not appeal to his taste and he saw no 
road to turn to. Solitude opened its majestic portals to his soul, — the 
most terrifying experience to meet any man or woman. All his pre- 
conceived delicately and conscienciously worked-out fabric of art melted 
in the sun of merciless truth like wax ! Re-entry into society was barred 
to him, and, worst of all, the friends whom he had cherished so dearly 
had left at the same time as his illusions. I can paint in my own soul 
the thoughts of Nietzsche in his solitude as a ragged wanderer, but figura- 
tively speaking he drifts along like a lost soul returned from its grave. 
But in spite of this deadly blow, he found strength to hold onto life 
and to think of the beauty of the new culture to come. The worst was 
to follow : a general dissatisfaction with everything ; and last but not the 
least of all, he wanted to go back to his old professional work. Bitter 
sarcasm gnawed at his heart! In short, he sickened to his end. After 
these many years it is still a beautiful task to consider Nietzsche's condi- 
tion at that period of his meteoric life and to go at the root of his ulti- 
mate terrible affliction. But, alas, what is being written on the subject 
in these days ! It is almost a disgrace to witness what so-called literature 
is bringing to light within the last few years. Not a single one of the 
various writers seems to be able, or capable, to get at the root of the 
matter. Nothing that has been written has anything to do with 
Nietzsche's hopelessly looking for an outlet from his misery of mind and 
soul! 



III. 

All the arbitrary outrages inflicted upon our plastic inner being in 
our youth leave their indelible imprint upon our soul to the end of our 
days. However we try to escape, we remain what society in power and 
in charge of our young years has decreed us to be. We may change 
our condition, but we never can get far from the effect of that early 
cruel stamp. We need not look long if in need of its outcropping! 
This is a terrible consciousness and often a tragic realization ! From the 
low and vile traits in us, thanks to the iniquities inflicted upon our souls 
in the making, there is no escape; time and again they will come to the 
surface under pressure of circumstances over which we have no control, 
and grin mockingly into our faces like a jail acquaintance of a reformed 
ex-convict! When those traits break out in myself occasionally I un- 
questioningly submit reluctantly for the time being as to a matter-of- 

18 



fact calamity — to be endured until the fagged-out ego rallies again to 
overcome and conquer the insidious foe, at least temporarily. Can this 
bitter truth give us an insight and key to Nietzsche's life? Let us see 
if the confessions of his associates of that period can throw a light upon 
the question. I reach out for the previously quoted memoirs of Miss 
Malwilda von Meysenbug and find, on page 44, the following data : 

"After passing with Olga some time at some German Springs and Health 
Resort, I returned in autumn to Italy in execution of a plan thought out by 
myself and to be put in application at that place. The health of Friedrich 
Nietzsche, a close friend since the year of 1872, showed such alarming symptoms 
that he saw himself forced to ask the university of Basle for an extended leave 
of absence in order to take a thorough rest, and he left drawn to the South as 
if his Greek soul thirsting for beauty might recuperate in midst a dazzling vista 
of superabundantly beauteous nature. He needed careful surroundings and 
caretaking, and as neither his mother nor his sister could accompany him at that 
time, and I had not yet established for myself a fixed asylum in Rome, I had 
offered him by letter to go together to Sorrento, to pass there the winter and in 
a happy 'dolce far niente' of Southern climes to recuperate if not fully regain 
his health." 

This paragraph indicates to us in which direction Nietzsche tried to 
find his conclusions. In the midst of ex-revolutionists of 1848 he became 
the Greek soul thirsting for beauty! And this lady continues, on pages 
45-46, as follows: 

"I had already made a preparatory trip to Sorrento and located a dwelling 
fitted for the small colony to which the original two had grown in the meantime. 
It was Nietzsche who had suggested as companions for Sorrento a highly esti- 
mated friend of his, Dr. Paul Ree, and one of his disciples, a Mr. Brenner of 
Basle, and since I had no objection to the proposition (as I knew the latter from 
Rome where he had come for his health) we took in consideration the possi- 
bility of living together in one house. I found an unoccupied boarding family 
hotel established by a German, situated in a vineyard. The second story had 
rooms for me and my virgin, and it had a large salon for social purposes. From 
the terraces one had a glorious view past the green garden upon the gulf and 
Mount Vesuvius, at that time very restive, at night sending up pillars of fire. 
After having thus prepared an abode I returned to Naples to wait for the com- 
panions. They arrived by boat from Genoa, and Nietzsche was somewhat 
disappointed, because the sea voyage and the arrival at Naples with its clamor- 
ing noisy invasive people had been very unpleasant for him. Toward evening 
I invited the gentlemen for a ride to the Posilippo. It was one of those evenings 
that one wanted only experience in that part of the globe. Heaven, earth and 
sea floating in a glory of color tints that baffle all description, that permeate the 
soul with the spell of sweet music and with a harmony that absorbs and dis- 
solves every discord. I noticed in Nietzsche's face the kindling beauty and 
almost childlike astonishment, how deep emotion overwhelmed him and lie 
ultimately broke into a rhapsody upon the South which I gladly welcomed as a 
good omen for his sojourn." 

Very well do 1 understand these details, and the motives at bottom 
reminding me of Giordano Bruno's star "Big Dipper." I can very well 
fathom also from these incidents the thoughts and the emotions of 
Nietzsche. And pretty soon he gives us a taste of it in his next work. 
Hence I do not dwell further into psychological proofs of my assertions 
and I take all the time deemed necessary, like a prosecuting attorney, 
to prove my case. I do not doubt that the disventure started already in 
the South. But consulting the memoirs of Miss von Meysenbug 's book 
further, we read : 

19 



"Often we four were Invited to pass an evening with Wagner. At these 
occasions it was rather strange to me to note in Nietzsche's words and actions 
kind of a restraint in naturalness a%d expression of joy, an attitude not usual 
with him. As he never expressed disapproval or opposition to these evenings 
in company I never had a suspicion that a change might have taken place in his 
views, and I dedicated and devoted my full heart to this additional enjoyment 
after the days of Bayreuth in association with such excellent people." 

This was the main point and constituted perhaps the most beautiful 
incident that happened to her in society, except the meeting with the 
warring prelate Joseph Strossmayer. She was in rapture over these 
meetings imaging herself the motive power behind these pleasing associa- 
tions. Alas, the great tricks and art of diplomacy enter every nook and 
corner of this globe and seem to try to use her for the nefarious schemes 
of the powers that be. We can see from all these how little choice 
Nietzsche has had in the whole matter; and how his presence there was 
artificial, because not of his liking and forced because not of his own 
selection and choice, for Nietzsche knew exactly what it all amounted to ! 
He could never close up and settle down in this manner. And yet, regard- 
less of all, the social meetings were kept up, and at one of them Miss von 
Meysenbug recited the following beautiful verse of Goethe : 

"Blessed he who without hatred shuts himself off this world, holding a 
friend in close embrace, enjoying with him what men have never known nor 
thought before and what passes at night through the labyrinth of our own 
breast!" 

She continues her account : 

"Wagner was not familiar with the quotation but deeply impressed with 
it so that I had to repeat it. How little did I guess at that time that the demons 
who pass at night through the labyrinth of the breast and view with hostility 
the divine secret of sympathy, were already at work to disunite and separate." 

This picturization of a process is marvelous, and creates in me the 
wish to be transcended into an eternity where there is no manifold 
kindred movements of awakening and revivification, under guidance of 
Will o' the Wisp leaders to bother me. But such wishes are no part of a 
prosecuting attorney, who with soft step and cat-like vigilance probes 
deep for hidden truths! Since from the quotations it becomes evident 
that Miss von Mysenbug was perfectly innocent and absolutely sincere 
in her role of peace-maker between waving demons, I should be the last 
person to keep mental reservations in the background and doubt the 
truth of plain words. At this point my everlasting study and thinking 
on the subject sets in . For twelve years I have endeavored to penetrate 
into the complex sentences of heavy books and always I found new food 
for thoughts — and especially composed proofs for my hidden nets of 
eager expectancy! I marvel at this, and I find greater joy and satis- 
faction than ever in the struggle of my own soul; quite a remarkable 
condition since old age is nearing my path through life and with it soli- 
tude becomes certitude. At such times I delve into the books and study 
the possibility of a translation a matter into actual life, probe into the 
hidden recesses of a great and deep soul, of an art or of a movement; 
and incidentally my memory dwells in dreamy, lovely and yet smiling 
solemnity upon the despairing warning uttered years ago with the last 
strength of a long departed fighter: 

20 



"Rather I would starve than depend upon the mercy of the high people 
in life. For the time being I am not sick, but, friends of the future, you know- 
already what is my fate. And if I keep silent on many subjects you know well 
why I act like that." 

To judge from mere appearances from the account of Miss von 
Meysenbug, Nietzsche was not sick as generally rumored, for he was 
always present at the social evening gatherings and walks. Of what 
value were they to Nietzsche? Let use see what the lady had to reveal 
on the subject. She tells us : 

"On the morning of January 8th of 1877, I walked alone with Nietzsche 
along the sea shore and we sat down upon a rock promontory truding far into 
the deep blue sea." 

During this walk they pondered over the tone aims in life with a 
harmonious consonance on the part of Nietzsche, and wisdom as to the 
solution. Yet incidentally we get an expression of Nietzsche that reveals 
his soul : ' ' To the true man everything is of service, even suffering, and 
for that I bless even the past year. ' ' 

Here we have in fact a genuine and good confession of faith, from 
which we are justified in drawing the conclusion that the past year 
referred to constitutes the parting of the ways from Wagner and logically 
with it from all the inherited, antiquated notions and beliefs which had 
fettered him to the people, their customs and moral-code, and even to 
the question of his own struggle for existence. That was entirely ready 
at that time to stand by the consequences, which can hardly be verified. 
So far he had only obtained a temporary release from the university of 
Basle. He had to think hard on how to make a living in the future, a 
matter often spoiling the appetites of many of the very best, sharpening 
that fate with all the ostracised to whatever class of human society they 
previously may have belonged. 

In accordance with this fact there can be no question of sickness 
with Nietzsche, but rather of a pending decision with regard the rest 
and recuperation needed in order to be able to go that way. In utter 
wonderment I thought if he perhaps recalled to memory the strange 
reasoning of Schopenhauer who bragged of his full pocketbook because 
it helped him so well in philosophizing. That may have been an alluring 
incentive to ally himself with the recognized builder of culture because 
there had come an end to the linguistic artist and professor: He dared 
the attempt. 

In regard to the mathematical thesis of the soul that every role 
played in life has its cause in the fact that man cannot withdraw a very 
great distance from his destined place in human society, we find further 
items in the private account of Miss von Meysenbug. First she had 
arranged the meetings between Wagner and Nietzsche. When this led 
to unavoidable shipwreck, she thought out another attempt. Suggestions 
contained in many letters received in praise of her book, "Memoirs of an 
Idealist," originated with her an extraordinary idea. She formulated 
the plan of establishing a mission home for both sexes in which Nietzsche 
and Eee consented to function as teachers. In this Mission-Home the 
youth were to be trained for the sublime idea and then scattered through- 
out the world to plant the seed of the new culture. As the plan was not 

21 



well-worked-out in detail, they could not agree upon a definition of cul- 
ture. . The view of the gentlemen and the lady lay wide apart and the 
new plan was shattered beyond any possible redemption, to all appear- 
ances due to a strong reaction in the part of Nietzsche. Well can I 
imagine the prospect of Nietzsche's visions. In his mind he looked 
curiously upon the coming young crop of bourgeois and philistines. He 
viewed the old story of a miserably eked-out existence and the clear 
concept — that an agitator for truth cannot be educated in accordance 
with the teaching of any pedagogic art. These facts perhaps made his 
head dizzy. We can well imagine the course of that discussion, as some 
time in our life we may have been witnesses ourselves of some equally 
fruitless deliberations ! 

The abortive outcome of plans of this kind brought about a change 
of vistas in the little colony. The men drifted away from the old Greek- 
view-point and turned to our blessed present period with the French 
moralists of the long heralded positivists' school. This caused terrible 
indignation on the part of Miss von Meysenbug who saw in Mr. Ree the 
scape-goat to be blamed for the seduction of Nietzsche. Especially does 
she hold him responsible for the subsequent aphoristic form of the philos- 
ophy of Nietzsche. No better assertion could be wilfully manufactured 
for the deliberate purpose of misleading the rising young generation. I 
claim, and feel fully justified in so doing, that these statements of Miss 
Meysenbug are made with the deliberate intention of warning and 
eventually freeing the world of a menacing philosophy! We see that 
very well pronounced on pages 59-60, as follows : 

"In the course of many conversations I noticed how deeply Ree's method of 
approaching philosophical problems influenced Nietzsche. So on one of our 
walks Nietzsche and I had a philosophical quarrel because he denied the law of 
casuality stating that there existed only a succession of thing and condition but 
not in a casual correlation to each other, and that what we conceived in the form 
of cause and effect were but unexplained facts. I replied to him that certainly 
the being, the unchanging is the tone of reality, the matter per se, so-called 
metaphysical. That we must have no fear to concede this. The apparently ever 
changing world was merely the appearance of the being, only to us, to our 
limited senses, it bore an aspect of change. But in all the changes, in life and 
death, in growth and decay was manifested the same All-One, the being. The 
Mindoolis already knew that truth in expressing it in the term of "tat warn asi," 
i. e., that art thou." 

We imagine the painful feeling of Nietzsche under the strain of 
such reasoning, but we will continue reading on pages 61-62 as follows: 

"At another occasion during a discussion on Schopenhauer he said, that it 
was the error of all religions to seek for a transcendental unity back of all 
manifestations and that it was also the error of all philosophy as well as of 
Schopenhauer's idea of a unity of the will to live. That philosophy was also a 
gigantic error like religion. That the only curable and good thing was science 
which gradually adds stone to stone to erect a solid structure." 

We may well assume that Nietzsche added here that life was not 
exclusively a question of continued existence but also one of power. He 
has made that clear with his definition and exposition of the Dionysian 
idea and trend of thought. If in his further remarks he adduces science, 
he was well aware of its weakness because in the fact of its declamations 
against religion it glorified the great labor of the newly arisen national 

22 



God and idol, Bismark, advancing and the black banner of the reaction- 
ary Centrum ! 

All she had to reply was : 

"This seems to me to be nothing but the ancient conceit of man which after 
the theory of the descent of man from the monkey has done away with the 
inblowing of the divine breath, takes refuge behind a dignified denial of the 
metaphysical, transcendental, and relies in the experiment alone, in the often 
so miserable fact." 

This is really splendid. After all these years it is a treat for me 
to read time and again, how Miss von Meysenbug convicts, or convinces 
Nietzsche of his error. But let us not be disconcerned and follow up 
the little colony which intended to send agitators out into the world. 
In the following spring Professor Ree and Mr. Brenner took their de- 
parture, Nietzsche and Miss von Meysenbug remaining. As they could 
not well deliver lectures to each other, they had many conversations. One 
evening they discussed Goethe's "Bride of Korinth" and she reports 
on page 62 as follows, Nietzsche's comments: 

"Goethe must have had in mind the old legend of the vampire which is 
antique and was known to the Greeks and he intended to exemplify how the 
customs and legends of antiquity transferred into a Christian world are turned 
and obscured into spooky things, and that the dark turn taken by Christianity 
so soon after its birth disturbed the beautiful, free, flourishing natural life into 
an atmosphere of sepulchres and skeletons." "Yes," I returned. "We should 
always keep in mind that historical Christianity was born in the catacombs." 

I can no more imagine delicious musings than those unexpressed 
thoughts at the bottom of Nietzsche's thinking apparatus arising in 
him during such discussions. One thing is perfectly clear to me, 
that he considered quite seriously the historical revolutionists. Niet- 
zsche's method of investigating deeply, circumspectively and thoroughly 
knew no limitations he was deciding for his ultimate affliction, the 
"sickness" of which he had to rid himself. He saw a possibility opened 
in that direction. But the beautiful climate and surroundings of the 
South, the happy associations as well as the careful ministrations of 
Miss von Meysenbug were of no help or relief. Quite suddenly he then 
took his departure and went into self chosen social exile. After all, he 
had to press solitude to his breast however terrible the aspect. This 
is a part which we must not lose sight of in our investigation. The most 
portentious and sublime feature of this phase of his mental evolution was 
that he could not endure conversations with his friends any more. How 
well do I know that bitter and yet healing truth from my own exper- 
ience ! Let us review this phase through the self-confessions of Miss 
von Meysenbug and then depart from the book as well as from the 
established historical fact: 

"One day Nietzsche came with a big package of written papers in his hand, 
and said I might read them, because they were thoughts which came to him on 
his lonesome walks, especially he called attention to a tree, from which fell 
always a thought, when he stood below. I read them with great interest, because 
in them were great thoughts, especially those which sustained his views on Greek 
culture; there were others, too, with which I sympathised, which did not belong 
to Nietzsche, and proved to me, that the positive line which I observed last 
winter retained a strong foundation, and gave him new imagination. Therefore 
I had to mention to him something about them, and begged him to leave the 

23 



whole matter in peace for a while, so as to revise it before he let it be printed. 
Farther I said to him, that he, especially regarding the women, cannot drop the 
final statement, because he has not the complete knowledge of women. The 
French moralists have had the right to make positive statements, because they 
knew fundamentally the society in which they lived, and they covered the society 
with their sayings; but without such positive and manyfolded observation, it is 
not advisable for the higher intelligence to speak so positively about psychological 
facts. I quoted a proverb of Ree's previously published book, which was against 
my taste, and indeed false, namely that woman always lured the men, who had 
enjoyed plentifully the life. Nietzsche smiled over my indignation, and said: 
'But do you believe then, that there is only one young man who thinks differ-' 
entry?' Indeed I was very angry and grieved to hear that from him, and I told 
him so, too, that this was a new proof to me how superficially he knows the 
women, and that no general remark on them becomes to him. Later we came 
anyhow in our Greek's navigation, and became friends as before. Unfortunately 
I found that the writings were published under the title, 'Human-All-Too-Human'; 
in spite of it my belief in Nietzsche's higher intelligence was too strong, except 
to take the whole matter as a pleasing phase of his evolution, from which his 
ideal will come victrious." 

Nietzsche knew how he had to depart ! 



IV 

I followed Nietzsche in this circle only in so far, because I thought 
truthful and serviceable the trend of thought which he took in the sep- 
aration of Wagner for his future, — I mean to put the whole matter in 
its true light before the readers! With this I want to stipulate how he 
investigated every point before he decided to fight alone! In spite of the 
fact, that he lived with these new-culture-transformers in a so-called 
peace, he investigated the fluctuation of thoughts of those, who kept 
their crampy fingers on the skirt of the old culture ! From there he drew 
his vengeance, — if I can say it that way! His headache and the pain 
in his eyes were secondary to him : — and only the principle remained to 
him the main thing! 

That this point is correct, will be soon proven by his next 
move. His next book, ''Human-AU-Too-IIuman," was indeed very dif- 
ferent from his four previously published books. Dionysos with his 
fiddle did not jump around with more foolish unconsciousness! It 
proved a daring challenge to all the revolutionists ! The simple title 
"A book for free spirits" was indeed the long prepared and well sharp- 
ened sword, with which he threatened to cut everything to pieces that 
came his way ! It echoed as an imperious Halt ! for all of them, who did 
not swing themselves upward! Herein he wanted to know the modern 
movement and the cowardice of the Many-too-Many ! That effected the 
reader like a ghost from a fable. This book was then received very 
cooly. With an exception of an unsigned present of Voltaire's bust from 
Paris, nobody responded ! Who this unsigned-one was, — anybody who is 
acquainted in literature knows. 

From that time on Nietzsche was alone, and the festival writing for 
Wagner could not save him from bitter hermitage. Nothing could rescue 
him from the material and otherwise approaching fall ! For such a one, 
with a bitter gall fulfilled and outspoken open-heartedness, there was no 

24 



more cure ; except in an energetic assault against the old culture and its 
trail-carriers ! But alas, the men whom he called did not respond ! The 
radicals did not care even to look at him! From such an historical fact 
I learned very much! That called my attention on all sickness, which 
resulted from deceptiveness ! 

For to avoid deception, I was forced to concede, that there was a 
trap even for Nietzsche, where he strongly considered the points, which 
ought to keep the body in a good condition. That was more than enough 
for me! The whole matter was fundamentally only a physiological one, — 
but the case can be taken even as a psychological one! From this func- 
tion and from that time on, it can be noticed that Nietzsche's writing 
was on this point only a wonderful autobiography, in which lonesome- 
ness he protested very much against society, its terrible injustice; and 
neverending state of distress ! That point could be more than enough for 
the poor people, who had to endure the state of distress ! He himself was 
one of them! No matter how the different reporters tried to hide the 
truth, and turn a false light on it, — the fact remains as stipulated! That 
is the point which we looked for, and to which investigation we sacrificed 
much time ! 

After the whole falsehood has been unveiled, I do not care to 
exaggerate one point, and imagine something that was not so ! At 
least I will try to imagine and believe, that a man can overthrow well 
established systems with one below ! Further, I am positive that Nietzsche 
was the last man who would think that such an exaggerated point was 
correct. Nevertheless, after he investigated the great error in its foun- 
dation, he knew, that the individual was entitled to his own opinions, 
and to tell them openly against unjustifiable culture. He took a strong 
hold thereon, because he knew from his own experiences, how easily a 
man can plunge unconsciously into corruption, especially when he has 
no other way out of a rounded labyrinth ! 

The manyfold cases of the freedom-fighters, who after their hard 
fight surrendered their guns, were laying on Ms stomach ! That is an in- 
curable sickness, — which is very hard to digest! With such a digestion 
he could not make complaisant service for the two-thousand-yearly in- 
veterated patterns, which were already carefully investigated with the 
well known categorical imperative, undersigned, and for which a sacred 
oath was openly glorified, and then confessed: — Everything in this cul- 
ture is good, and even impartially regulated ! Nietzsche was standing 
at a great distance regarding this point — namely Emanuel Kant ! He, the 
scientific investigator and still stronger experimentalist of life upon this 
earth, saw in the form of metaphysics, — that the living man mast have 
a foundation on which he has to live his life! Only with such a well 
known weapon, he turned with a well founded fact toward the biological, 
psychological, and physiological laws, from which not one iota can be 
taken away! For to look through these laws fundamentally, investigate 
them, and work out a passably good system, he had to take a different 
way than that of the generally accepted pattern ! His experiences drove 
him to the well loved and nevertheless cool science, no matter how the 
result may come. He did not care for the primitiveness of man, but a 

25 



question came to him : — Ho w should the man live his life upon this world ? 
Evidently and fundamentally he recognized the art of life as the biggest of 
all the arts and sciences ! That was not a small matter for him, especially 
when he considered the many authors who run into the enemy's camp! 
With this fact he already was busy when he published his first book, 
" 'Birth of Tragedy," namely the well directed inheritance of pattern of 
the methaphysical thing-in-itself, and took energetic stand against it, — 
the system of Socrates! There and then he thought more about it, and 
so recognized the system of Schopenhauer which brought him the inevit- 
able psychology, which seemed to him a big monster. Hence, he discerned 
the need for a fundamental investigation and far more work, for which he 
badly needed qualified helpers. And because the new-culture-transformers 
did not like such rough work, he expected to find in Wagner a truthful 
friend ! But, alas, his experience taught him otherwise ! Therefore 
he turned to himself, and determinedly undertook the big and never- 
theless hard work. That was his candid resolution, because he did not 
know anybody who could enthuse him for this kind of work. The French 
positivists were the last one ; and although they had a scientific method of 
investigation, they greatly lacked the necessary courage to sail near the 
truth and unveil it to the awaiting world ! 



To put his primitive thoughts (I am just wondering here, if such a 
thing exists in our life, that truth hides irreconcilable vengeance?!) on 
paper, Nietzsche wrote, in his first sentence of the book " Human- 
All-Too-Human, ' ' about "Chemistry of Ideas and Sensations." That 
was indeed wonderful, and he could not make the point better even 
when advised by others. To put the conceptions and sentimentalities 
under a chemical perspective, was indeed more than a man could ever 
think. He slowed up his sensitiveness about external pressure, and 
handled it scientifically. With such a well worked out perspective, he 
sounded the herald's call to the free spirits! They should work indus- 
triously on the necessary investigation, and find in culture the primitive- 
ness of the fundamental sensibility of the ambitious people, and then only 
grasp the inevitable result of it. In the mean time they should not con- 
sider the external things which are openly exposed, but try to catch 
their grip upon this earth, and courageously tear down the mask from 
the infamous LIE! That should be a plaything for the free spirits! 

So as not to be misunderstood, he wrote in the second article about 
the four-thousand-yearly misinterpretations of philosophical stipulation 
about the foundation of a right culture. This curious misinterpretation 
worked in such a low degree on the primitiveness of man, that he had not 
changed psychologically throughout the milleniums. Therefore it would 
be absurd if we took the pretended truth of theology as shining 
gold! Therefore he turned an energetic front against it, so as to paint 
on the wall the culture glorified thing-in-itself of the Theologians, and 
predicted to them their ruin! With this well directed proportion he meas- 
ured art, — namely the truthful servant of the Teleologians' system — and 

26 



presumptuously dared to pull the artists' ears. He wrote on pages 16-17 
the following: 

"Respecters of forms, certainly, with their standard of the beautiful and 
noble, will first of all have good reasons for mockery, as soon as the appreciation 
of unpretentious truth, and the scientific spirit, begin to obtain the mastery; 
but only because their eye has either not yet recognised the charm of the simplest 
form, or because men educated in that spirit are not yet completely and inwardly 
saturated by it, so that they still thoughtlessly imitate old forms (Jand badly 
enough, as one does who no longer cares much about the matter.) Formerly 
the spirit was not occupied with strict thought, its earnestness then lay in the 
spinning out of symbols and forms. This is changed; that earnestness in the 
symbolical has become the mark of a lower culture. As our arts themselves 
grow evermore intellectual, our senses more spiritual, and as, for instance, people 
now judge concerning what sounds well to the senses quite differently from how 
they did a hundred years ago, so the forms of our life grow ever more spiritual, 
to the eyes of older ages perhaps uglier, but only because it is incapable of per- 
ceiving how the kingdom of the inward, spiritual beauty constantly grows deeper 
and wider, and to what extent the inner intellectual look may be of more impor- 
tance to us all that the most beautiful bodily frame and the noblest architectural 
structure." 

Here we have everything in a nutshell! We do not need to go 
further in order to reach the spiritual dainties ! From this fact it is ap- 
parent that man must build his thoughtfulness even in time of need ; in a 
very poorly nourished body ! This is indeed a true fact, which Nietzsche 
felt in himself ! His own experience he transferred to the human race, and 
here I am doubting, that the French positivists at that time saw or at 
least wanted to acknowledge such a postulatory assertion! To 
this I do not care to be small hearted, and I too admit that 
the officially engaged savants of that time declined most vigorously to 
accept such a fact about nourishment of thoughtfulness! On the other 
hand, they lacked the necessary courage, for ventilation of the thousand- 
yearly Lie-Veil of Teleology ! Nevertheless with this energetic unveiling 
Nietzsche changed even the inherited grammar. He did not care very 
much if the well handed 'IT' represented the first or the third person. 
Upon foundation of this contrasting assertion, there issued from his writ- 
ings a very cold air, which smelled strongly after scientific investigation 
over life itself. He knew well, that his stipulated fact was not for 
everybody, and so he resolved to write only for free spirits! There- 
fore he warned the common man before reading his book, namely that 
one, who was not yet able to swing himself above reading the system of 
Telelogy ! 

To paint better the art of teleologians on the wall, he brought 
to use astrology and relative points to it. When a man reads this ex- 
planation a gorgeous ecstacy it drives his mentality to such a pitch, that 
death seems inevitable. Everything in it is very intelligible and noble. 
Here he described the real philistine in his fundamental thoughts : how 
he tries, with his aestatical, logical, religious and moral feelings, to touch 
the heart of our earth, but has not the real courage for scientific educa- 
tion, so as to confirm that he himself is the heart! Hence, the result 
is that the people of philistines' mentality acknowledge the external 
things, and never themselves! With this confirmation there arrives 
usually the well nursed and easily applied visions, which forms right- 
angled imagination, with the possibility to show the real road where 
God's country can be built. 

27 



A very interesting question follows: "How could we investigate 
scientifically such a marvelous and generally sustained case as the sys- 
tem of the teleologians?" For him, who carefully and truthfully ob- 
serves the subjugation of life, the whole matter seems an easy point. 
It has to be investigated individually; the industrial investigator dis- 
solves everything, and places each case on its well ordered place, and 
classifies it as good or bad ! Working along such a well marked line, the 
right result of our social life has to come as answer. In such a well ap- 
plied work no point is important, neither sensitive nor impossible! but 
remains clear and plain as the sun is! The careful investigator feels 
himself as a part of the physical visible and not of the metaphysical 
invisible things and directions. Through this well founded fact a man 
feels himself contented upon this our beloved earth, and gladly re- 
nounce that kingdom behind the clouds! Therefore only that is 
interesting, which is visible and tangible to the end! For such a care- 
ful investigator of the smallest things, directions, and different move- 
ments, a man does not need art, philosophy, or at least a man as a helper, 
who admires such arts or philosophies! He simply convinces himself of 
the necessary knowledge for himself, and repels the teaching of officially 
acknowledged rulers, so as to declare: I am now here, and I can 
venture to investigate the life and all its subordinated obstacles ! What 
the result might be, has nothing to do with me so long as I reach the full 
measure of acts ! Here I have one suggestion : Provided my head is 
beheaded ! Well, then, all of my cunningly worked-out proportions, 
namely the indescribable beauty of this world is at an end! This as- 
sertion is final, but very brief ! 

Hence I hope, that sometime this will be the real fact : the general 
public will not have time for calculation about the clouds and their hid- 
den metaphysical resources ! Yes, indeed, if I am not mistaken, this time 
is already here ! To this I want to mark a fact : The general public has 
a strong impregnable custom, which compels them on Sundays to think 
of the metaphysic, — otherwise they roll up their sleeves and with the 
sweat dropping from their foreheads hustle so as to produce the 
round of things, which their insatiable ambitions calls for; because 
this ostensible fact is the present ruling art and Diplomacy, and not for 
the called-for metaphysics ! This self forced fatigue of body and men- 
tality with exhaustible work though nevertheless with art and Diplomacy, 
must end some day, and then arises an unexpected question: "Why such 
exhausted weariness and negligence of own life?" Then only will come 
the acknowledgement of a true science of life ! So felt Nietzsche, who 
dared to look through our old, decayed system of speculative calucula- 
tion, and finally as a necessary measure had to ask: "What for all this 
immense work ? ' ' That only brought him the inevitable acknowledgement 
that his well composed language supposed to be decisive ; which suppo- 
sition forced him to see the difference between himself and the other 
people. At the same time he sincerely acknowledged, that he belonged 
to the human race, and hardly could be seperated from it! 

Herein he acknowledged the faculty of language, which could serve 
the man, — even in a strong attack on the system of teleology, — because 



the destiny of man lays not in an invisible being, neither should it be 
ordered to a visible artist; but the individual, the people, the nation, 
and at last the whole human race have to make their own destiny ! Such 
a declaration the leaders of the ruling pattern could not and did not 
want to acknowledge! They felt in their well besieged and artful am- 
bush, strongly threatened, and therefore they wanted to arm themselves 
still stronger! Herein lays the foundation of a culture, which crippled 
the human mentality to such a degree, that it continued for milleniums ! 
In order to make an energetic assault against the decadence of the 
teleological system, Nietzsche turned his appeal to the free spirits, and 
not a word more to the, previously acknowledged artists ! These artists, 
he meant, were the real cause themselves, because they lacked the 
weapons and still more, the necessary courage ! Hence he acknowledged, 
that, so far the teleological art is authorized from state officials, and by 
them well protected, and at last but not least with a well applied polite- 
ness upheld before and behind the throne, there can not be talk on a 
right-angled application for the desired economical system ! That was 
a badly knotted point, which could not be so easily unknotted! In this 
direction after this well sorted explanation, each reader ought to work 
cautiously, and as quickly as possible acknowledge, — in which form of 
writing, composition, or selection of declamatorial speech he intends 
to make his attack on the present system ! Ah, what a warning for me ; 
sometimes, I have sought the right opportunity to say only a few 
words about my own views in regard the culture, — and there has come 
already a strong storm of bitter antagonism ! Therefore, Nietzsche chose 
the form of aphorism for his preliminarily slumbering thoughts! He 
was forced to use only small indications, so as to be able to disparage 
the system of the teleologians ! 

Upon a foundation of such a fact, he brought 'home' the rightful and 
scientific proof, which carried him away over the candid rule of historical 
individuals, who lead and mislead the human race for milleniums! With 
this acknowledgment he inserted that, even when some reformation in 
society happened, the fundamental part of teleology was sustained with 
full power of brutality ; but forever the art of form as the usual media- 
tion was made use of, so as to apply to the " momentarily demanded" 
reformation a new name, which should correspond more ostensibly to 
modernity! But deep below these officially demonstrated deeds, the 
old decayed system remained triumphant ! 

He viewed history with keen eyes, and interpreted it, as he thought, 
to be correct ; when even the fact was officially marked, that history 
showed great and far-sighted men, who keenly overlooked their own 
time, and who had great aspiration for a new culture. They knew 
only too well that they lacked the scientific ground for their attack 
against the enormous power of the teleologians' sj^stem. Therefore 
Nietzsche made a slight indictment on Luther and his time, — illuminating 
with a flash of light in a short aphorism. He was accustomed to look upon 
centuries as upon quickly passing minutes. Nevertheless, right after he 
points at Schopenhauer, who completely proved the deficient, minute 
scientific investigation, with which was only possible the introduction of 

29 



a new and higher culture, which would dare to turn its back to the 
system of teleologians. Here Nietzsche meant that only by this means 
of intelligence, was it possible to carry out, and justly sum up a complete 
investigation of the world's history. Only with such good material could 
it be possible to carry on the flag of scientific education; and indeed 
the names of Petrarca, Erasmus and Voltaire are at the front! But, 
alas, he meant, for this purpose, we need such brave and courageous men 
as Voltaire, who openly said to the barbarous king: "I beg your part 
pardon, your majesty, not to worry yourself in the future for my 
lodgings ! ' ' 

That was enough for the comprehenders, and they are supposed to 
be only the free spirits, who will dare to carry on the utmost fight against 
the teleological system,— without receiving the necessary permission for 
an art from the state. Here undoubtedly he meant Richard Wagner, but 
would not mention his name. Here we have to account for fundamentally 
the open and free-hearted ones, who would not give way to any senti- 
mentality by the transformation of a new culture, and to whom a small 
prejudice in their provincial surroundings was nothing, but the human 
race above everything else ! 

With this little glance aside Nietzsche wanted to show to the free 
spirits how they have to arm themselves with intellectual weapons, so 
as to carry on the embryonic scientific investigation, and with it to take 
the right position against any pressure! That was indeed a very good 
hint! This well considered and courageous appelation found no favor 
from those men who glorified statesmanship! The truthful acknowl- 
edgment was lacking, and in this way Nietzsche was deadly silenced! 
The future men can try for themselves to find clearness ! This lead me to 
see the excellent and nevertheless well grounded thoughts of Niztzsche ! 
The outcast wanderer stood before him like a scare-crow! No wonder, 
that his beloved sister mentioned somewhere, the thoughts of Zara- 
thustra originated in the seventy's years! Indeed, he though very much 
on the vagabondizing wanderers when he wrote, — namely, those wander- 
ers who composed once upon a time the immortal songs of Niebelungen, 
and whose names nobody knows! Such wanderers were indeed for him 
the free spirits ! Nietzsche himself longed very much for a long wander- 
ing ! But alas ; years must pass, before an intellectual man dare to 
go on such a rampant road ! Whoever doubts this statement, he can oblige 
himself in the life of Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian thinker, and see 
there how long it took Tolstoy to decide upon a rampant wandering. 

By the courageous jump which Nietzsche made we should not under- 
mine the great carefulness for the free spirits, especially when we take 
in consideration the direction of the teleological system in the scientific 
navigation. On the one hand he calls their attention to the jump, and 
he advised them to be very careful! Each one should throw himself 
at an art, but only as a means for a purpose, — because the sentiments of 
the people are still tied up with the old, impressive and alluring admira- 
tion of art, and thence are to be respected with great care! With this 
view-point he came to an acknowledgement, that he had to recognize 
the fact of a possible contradiction, on which foundation a man easily 

SO 



becomes a victim of pessimism or of optimism! Because a belief never 
was anything when compared with a scientific investigation! Only one 
main point should be taken as irremissible and truthful, — namely, to 
know both sides, and everything which belongs to them! There- 
fore the devotee should go ahead, regardless what the results might 
be. Nietzsche turned blamelessly, and warned the free spirits before the 
people of general opinion and mainly before their malicious inclination 
in rendering calumniously at a character. The free spirit should 
avoid making a prattler of himself, because when a man is a thinker 
the necessity ceases of thinking on God or at least of talking or writing 
of Him! To indicate briefly how to act properly, — the free spirit should 
take care before the silly interpreter of God, — foremost before the 
theologian, who is the fundamental standard carrier of the teleological 
system! Because we should not cheat or at least deliver ourselves to 
the brutal power which is behind the thelogian. Beautifully he speaks 
on page 44: 

"Apart from theology and its contentions, it is quite clear that the world 
is not good and not bad (to say nothing of its being the best or the worst), and 
that the terms 'good' and 'bad' have only significance with respect to man, and 
indeed, perhaps, as they are usually employed; in any case we must get rid of 
both the calumniating and the glorifying conception of the world." 

No man could write more beautifully or majestically about this 
point. Here is nothing strange or at least misunderstood. Here a man 
does not need to be a philosopher, so as to understand the reference, with 
an especially molded interpretation. It must be at last certain, that a 
man who devotes himself to free spirit's idea, must know what he has 
to do ! Individually, I do not like to go further into this difficult point, 
because I am writing my individual interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche. 
But to put a still better characteristic on the individual's fictitious eleva- 
tion he indicated further, how the man easily beguiles himself through 
the arts and religion, and in the most cases unconsciously serves the 
teleological system. Please, see the remark on page 45 : 

"Not the world as thing-in-itself, but the world as representation (as error) 
is so full of meaning, so deep, so wonderful, bearing happiness and unhappiness 
in its bosom. This result leads to a philosophy of the logical denial of the world, 
which, however, can be combined with a practical world-affirming just as well as 
with its opposite." 

For the comfort of the free spirit's doubts referring to the energetic 
attack on the teleological system, where everything should be sacrificed 
for unveiling the whole truth in reference to the possibility of the corrup- 
tion of the philosophical system, Nietzsche asked: "Will there be a 
tragedy of it, and should a man rather comply with life or death?" As 
if to answer his own question, he said : "The free spirits have no must!" 
Namely, as they are on a long wandering, they do not need morals, and 
therefore are all religions abolished in this world, and of course do not 
exist for free spirits, and therefore the road for scientific ground is open ! 
Namely that direction on which a man can slowly bring the individual 
granule to its ordained place, without to glorify before a religion or art. 

VI. 

In the second division, Nietzsche brings moral feeling as a well laid 

31 



foundation against the teleological system. That is more than anybody 
could ever expect! With a few aphorismen he overshadows the whole 
system, and slowly depreciates it. For to explain closer the foundation 
of the system, namely that artfully created moral feeling, and in a certain 
measure to paint it on the wall as he felt it after Wagner's departure, 
he mentioned the tried souls of their own observation and their results, 
and not without purpose, because he calls it even prejudice! A free spirit 
should study this foundation by individuals, so as to build a psychology 
from it, which he himself may believe with full confidence! For this 
practice he recommended an unusual mentality and cold-bloodedness, 
because there will come many bitter moments during such a work, where 
even a well informed man will lose his mental balance. Here speaks 
Nietzsche's own acknowledged experience, and such an outspoken self- 
confession is remarkable. A sincere man could ravish on such a truthful 
warning. But that is not enough; he meant a man must go cautiously 
about such a difficult work, with such a brave perseverance, as to be 
ready at any time with utmost firmness to look at the many years, which 
will pass by without results. That, would be the only word for such 
a man, who strives to forget his present in obtaining his ultimate object. 

To consider the whole point with my well-weighted intelligence, the 
result remains, that we have not such people in our society, because every- 
body is too much complicated in the terrible Maelstrom of our chaotic 
present, where each one is thankful, with ordered politiness, for his poorly 
constructed existence ! Therefore I can even claim, that a person seldom 
has time to read such books, and less time to investigate them so as to 
prepare the scientific road for the coming generations. To judge the con- 
clusion, a careful investigator can easily see how the individual becomes 
the victim. This fact is as old as the entire literature itself. Here the 
careful investigator, who reads good books, can easily recall Voltaire's 
remark in "The Forty Crown Man." Nevertheless, the same point can 
be seen in H. Heine's "The Romantic School." Here preponderance of 
scepticism came more strongly than ever to the front. All these recapi- 
tulations Nietzsche repeated and pondered on, and his sincere warning 
against useless tragedy is not so strange as to be unintelligible! Whence, 
it should be clearly seen through the legally enforced opinions of our 
poorly constructed existence, that the stronger we hold with crampy 
thoughts on it, the quicker we run to the region of bloody tragedy ! Here 
is explanation for it: The legally enforcements of our daily existence 
robs us of our necessary time for thinking, and in the meanwhile the rep- 
resentations of the teleological system works industriously behind our 
backs on the well-weighted disunion, which representations easily lure 
the individual as well as nations into bloody battles ! That is the result 
of negligence, which leads to unspeakable tribulation and bloody tragedy, 
and indeed, this point ought to compel our intellectuals to meditation! 

Therefore Nietzsche urged his reader to have courage and remain 
faithfully on the once started work, and not to get discouraged ! Here an 
investigator can see how he (Nietzsche) vegitated on his work, but never- 
theless he tried to be courageous. In his own energetical onward march, 
he explained what kind of a profession psychology was; what kind of 

32 



tools, — as for instance a big operating table, many and very sharp knives, 
and very strong tongs, — we need for it. 

These are all such indications as cannot be understood by every- 
body ! Therefore, he turned his urgency of request to the free spirits and 
wanderer, because the operation of an individual's moral feelings consti- 
tutes the utmost attack upon the strongly armed terribleness of the tele- 
ological system. This the investigator has to see clearly, because the ever- 
repeatedly coming obstacles are too many in our over-crowded circle of 
existence, where the boastfully hurled grace-bones are received with 
cowardly, but nevertheless very bitter and cunning looks, so as to ex- 
change it opportunely with dreadful indignation! At last each one 
droops ! Such a selfmade elevation for courage and sharp looks is linked 
with a very sensitive suffering and usually brings discouragement. 
Nietzsche only too promptly acknowledged this and therefore he longed 
for a free life, — a prolonged wandering ! Out from such study he came 
to the conclusion, that a wanderer becomes a play-ball in any circle of 
existence, and how the same wanderer must elevate himself to a merci- 
less carving of his own mentality, if he ever wants to overcome the cun- 
ning boss of his present subjugated existence. 

This remarkable point of our daily existence Nietzsche supported 
sincerely, and mainly because of the necessity for education in mental 
sharpness, so as to reach every moral feeling with such an obvious fact 
of our daily misconstrued existence. With this tacit foundation, an in- 
vestigator could easily reach the authoritative difficulty of the social 
problem, about which all the old philosophers never vexed themselves! 
In such a manner we can see the whole history of Nietzsche's thinking, 
which was carefully wrapped in a nutshell. Therefore, the future be- 
came to him gray! This was the main cause of his energetic attack on 
the artists who continually supported the present and dominant power 
of the teleological system ! Therefore he pointed his finger at the leaders 
of history, who knew how to change the remotest thoughts and emotions 
in their books, so as to grant very respectfully the highest praise to the 
whole phraseology of teleology, so that nothing else would seem to be 
more important upon this world of ours than the old form of God ! ! ! In 
between likewise the niggardly compelled existence of the present, as 
well as the fact of the hungers of nations, subjects of the brutal state 
power, which swung with the ninetail whip, and made everybody ready 
for a Zippel-polka, where brutal and merciless whipping ruled the danc- 
ing ! For this we receive a flashlight on pages 56-57 : 

"If it is certain, however, that superficiality in psychological observation has 
laid, and still lays, the most dangerous snares for human judgments and con- 
clusions, then there is need now of that endurance of work which does not grow 
weary of piling stone upon stone, pebble on pebble; there is need of courage not 
to be ashamed of such humble work and to turn a deaf ear to scorn." 

This sentence would not allow doubt; but the present of Nitzsche's 
time, did not want to understand! The intellectuals, who indeed were 
able to carry on progressive education, thought it over cunningly before 
they started on this dangerous road. We have certain facts for it ! We 
never failed to investigate ! Nobody is excluded from it ! It is a wonder, 
however we could reach such a conclusion ! With such a positive result 

33 



we became simply negligent toward our daily existence, and only with 
such pernicious tactics we gained the necessary time for an onward 
march regardless what might happen to us, and in such a manner we 
could see the fundamental fact of people's moral feelings! We took 
time for thinking, and everything else became to us of equal values! 
With such actions we could lose nothing, because we never had anything ! 
On the contrary we won without a false imagination a true world ! This 
indeed was payment! 

For the purpose of maintaining his indication, which overturned the 
economical question of all the previous philosophies, Nietzsche brought 
psychology in as a well entitled addition to science, which should be 
worked out for the welfare of the individual as well as the masses. With 
such a characteristic concession he intended to abolish the main factor 
of our economical question. But at the same time, whenever the economi- 
cal question arises in society, our teleological representation have a 
cunning question, namely about the intelligible freedom! That question, 
Nietzsche knew too well, and he sincerely answered: "It is always the 
same old act of espionage : if the new-culture-maker will remain truthful 
to the teleological system, and act accordingly. So as to be defended 
from further attack, Nietzsche recommends pressing forward in science, 
regardless of prejudice for or against the teleological system ! For 
him this was the main point only, that science for the sake of justice 
and truthfulness reached its point of evolution, and to everything else 
he remained indifferent. With this situation triumphed the cause of life 
and still more the socialogical problem ! That this indication is true, 
please, consider the attack of a teleological representative's book, 
Johannes Schlaf, says on page 125: 

"As for the rest and essential consideration it is but a wantoness; and we 
say, that the old Schopenhauer equally to Nietzsche indicates on the just men- 
tioned spot, who deducted from it the understanding of a moral responsibility in 
his metaphysical form of dejection ('guilt of consciousness'), which pulls frequent- 
ly behind itself certain action — a view-point which is current to us from Christian 
ethics — is to be taken ten times more seriously than that, what Nietzsche 
give us here for best amusement!" 

That is indeed enough! After years came an answer, indictment, 
and even proof not to take Nietzsche seriously! But the fact remains: 
the big imaginable wantoness, which he recommended to free spirits 
became nonsensical to the teleological followers! Even I myself want 
to acknowledge this fact, and even so far as to the point of jota ! The 
teleologians never imagined such a strong attack! Therefore I am not 
wondering what Miss Malwilda von Meysenbug had to say at that time 
against that book. Nevertheless, Nietzsche knew, from the well founded 
ground of his experience, what kind of fruit — scientific investigation 
would bring. He did not care for any party, at least party of politicians, 
and far less for the existence built up by political power, but he cared 
very much for the interests of life, which were disguised, and hindered 
in evolving establishment through the false form and sound of teleology. 
To strengthen this stipulation, he talked of Schopenhauer, who acknowl- 
edged that there is a tremendous power in man, which he positively 
thought, what he wanted to be! That desire as security for character, 

34 



is the most important part, even before any existence! With this 
assertion, he attacked Plato and Kant, and indicated both as accomplices 
of the teleological system! In this manner came continually the many 
conclusions. When a man is constantly under threat, in his existence, 
even before he has time to reflect fundamentally, then it was not his guilt 
how he acted 'good or bad/ but it was very important question for the 
monster system, because it demanded, under the protection of state 
authority, that every man must have a moral feeling! A bad action 
against the teleological system ought to call forth repentance and sting 
of conscience ! With such enforced doctrine upon him v man thought 
Jiimself always free, although he never was free! That fact was true* 
in the past, and is still the motto today! No people upon this globe 
are excluded from it! With this, Nietzsche wanted to concede, that 
nobody is personally responsible for his actions. Please, read on page 61 : 

"Nobody is responsible for his action, nobody for his nature; to judge is 
identical with being unjust. This also applies when an individual judges himself. 
The theory is as clear as sunlight, and yet every one prefers to go back into the 
shadow and the untruth, for fear of the consequences." 

His maxims are beautiful sunrays, and arranged so well that nothing 
could remain misunderstood. Everything has its well-selected place, 
namely as the teleological system furnished the best disvaluation ! But, 
for to turn the real light this disvaluation, he called attention to the 
frightful beast in man, which drives him to faintness if he has not moral 
feeling! Upon this foundation, man has made for himself a merciless 
law, with which he parted from animal with disgust ! In this category 
surely belongs the slave, who even today is no man! This is an undis- 
puted reference or acknowledgement of science. Our world has existed 
for millions of years — but : upon this same globe is still taught the story 
of Kain and Abel! This again was his finger on the gentlemen of tele- 
ology, because he writes on page 62: 

"But if one were to imagine a man of eighty thousand years, one would have 
in him an absolutely changeable character, so that a number of different individu- 
als would gradually develop out of him." 

With it he explained, how long a time it takes to discipline a char- 
acter! But when we look around us today on the discipline of people for 
characted, we have at a moment's notice enough, because another chan- 
nel is being opened, through which rushes misconduct and wretchedness. 
Here is a ready proof for it: We teach our children reading, writing, 
and a little arithmetic ; then in a furious haste we compell them to 
produce for others, who satiate themselves on it even to dyspepsia, and 
with such a malady entangled, they gather together the greatest arts 
(about which we know a well founded fact, namely, they give service 
to the teleological system!), which these dyspeptics show to the public 
as winded-up sensation, behind which these gentlemen of dyspepsis like 
to make believe their 'humanity.' Further and better, no man could 
describe the whole point of our entangled arts with our modern money- 
kings! Nevertheless, if one has good Common-sense for a thorough 
investigation, he can easily and without any doubt find here that 
Nietzsche deliberately put up an obvious protest against our present 
economical corruption! To all these energetic attacks, he did not care 

35 



to be called an agitator! Nevertheless, he knew only too well, how to 
bring the hidden point of our never ending injustice on the right road, 
and handle it to the right man! He did not cheat himself with such a 
stipulation, at least he under-estimated the tremendous power of a 
tyrannical system. Therefore he turned like a tricky sneak, so as to 
save the cause of Justice! He knew only too well the hidden thoughts 
of the teleologians ! After more than thirty years, we find a very in- 
genious reference to this writing, in the book of Johannes Schlaf, on 
page 277-8 : 

"Once again is the world and time so restless and full of 'sin/ of decay, 
insipidness, perpetuation, shallow and silly intellectual chattering and gabbling! 
Is it not "epilepticbecoming?" And just for those, who have all truth and power 
of kind and individuality? For to see such a complete hospital — example as the 
philosopher Nietzsche, how it is allowed such a free talking, yes, how it impresses 
the utmost operation over all Europe for twenty years, and find the most extensive 
resonance; yes, that is epileptic — even 'krazybecoming.' May God take care, that 
all these should not make the true man and the true kind of manhood to one, and 
who knows to what an intriguing and 'bad' daemon!" 

In the begining the literates intended to keep silent about Nietzsche; 
then they accused him of lack of earnestness, but when courage spread 
all over Europe, then the literates hallooed their heads off, like a pitiless 
censor, who shall have all the armament of the best bubble-instrument 
of academical education' All this insipid agitation did not matter to the 
progress of understanding the exactness of our corrupt society ! Nietzsche 
spread his thoughts with ink upon our globe, but more on the freedom 
fighting descendants, who suck fresh courage, which no power of modern 
diplomacy can drive away ! Seldom had I tears upon my rough cheeks, 
but just now I feel an unexpected happiness, which draws from my 
eyes some tears! A strong vigor flows in my vein, which makes me 
positive that all the yearnings of freedom feel stronger; that we all 
together have molded a tremendous WILL, on which strong foundation 
we want sincerely to remember the case of our unfortunate Nietzsche { 
This day of remembrance shall be for us a magnificent warning against 
the tyrannical power of the teleological system ! Did he leave us many 
truthful warnings; we must digest carefully all of them in our men- 
tality ! 

Nietzsche knew only too well what he wanted to write, and he 
never became shy, thereby denying his own convictions! It may be that 
he wrote only for the highest intellects. But right there he had a strong 
warning for them, namely their unexpected entanglement with a party, 
or what should prove far worse, not to try to be a Herald! But what 
should we do, when our daily existence drives us into the different schools 
of experience ? and we have to talk for long time out of it ! This he knew, 
and therefore he fetched the gabbler by his honor, and warned him 
against mixing with power of custom ! Not to convict him of cowardness, 
but to open for him a road on which the unconscious gabbler could finish 
his work of reconstruction already begun ! This very remarkable point 
claimed our attention, and indeed, we became very industrious with less 
gabbling. We therefore renounced the very ancient conceptions of 
society because we knew that every new idea called for martyrs! This 
hint showed us all the chosen directions on which a lover of~freedom 

36 



deliberately put the saying from New Testament 18.14: "Who lower him- 
self, he will be elvated." That is easy to understand! But, to make his 
point still stronger and more final for the free spirits, he writes on 
page 107 : 

"The complete irresponsibility of man for his actions and his nature is the 
bitterest drop which he who understands must swallow if he was accustomed to 
see the patent nobility of his humanity in responsibility and duty." 

This remark drove many and brave freedom fighters to bitter des- 
peration, because they became melancholic, when they found out that 
they never were on the right track, and what was for them far worse, 
peculiar acknowledgment reaches only a very careful investigator, who 
know to transform positively his daily meagerness to a vivid loftiness 
of a frivolous wanderer or free spirit; who know that he has to go 
• further and further, and always songless ! Armed with such indications 
there came to many men of understanding a flashing perception, which 
molded a new doctrine for them: "Where we cannot sing, there we 
have to be in a hurry." With such a self -constructed doctrine, we nursed 
in ourselves a sweetness, and indeed, we became ready to forget the 
frightfulness of the states — deliberately we drove the Christian pity 
from our head, and still further, we refused to confess any guilt ! With 
this resolute decision we freed ourselves from the enforced antiquity of 
the teleological system. 

VII 

Nietzsche wrote only that which he had conquered ! In such a 
manner he liked to see the free spirits! Whoever could not digest the 
first and the second division of his " Human- All-Too-Human" might as 
well stay away ! He was a mere pie-crust, because he knew how the 
highest intellect hung on the art and the brought hither system! He 
knew more and even positively the fickleness of the most ardent freedom- 
fighters, whom he wanted now to illuminate with a brisk flashlight ! No 
one should dare to imagine that our thousand years' system of tyranny 
is standing on weak feet ! Therefore he hurled strikingly into the 
infinitely big battle ground of the many battles for freedom before the 
new-constructors, and again warns them, that not one had the right to 
mix-up individually! Explanation: All the imagined possibilities of 
ending our tyrannical system with a moment strike on a leader, was for 
Nietzsche an unforgiving foolishness! He meant, that the big evil was 
deeper than any one could imagine ! Here he wanted to stipulate the 
unavoidable necessity of psychology being used in all the coming battles 
for freedom ! In spite of such a well founded conception of the future, 
the necessary work for the reconstruction of our decaying society has 
to be taken up, and only with grain-like digestion and more with bar- 
baric operating knives ! Then he resolved to go on a prolonged wander- 
ing, so as to lose his identity entirely! This indication could drive us 
to bitter tears, and we were not quite so innocent in the whole proceeding. 
The cunning fox has nothing against our acknowledgment! In between 
we had to continue our work, piece by piece, until we threw away the 

17 



ancient 'clothes' of the teleological system. After the division of Moral 
Feeling appears as conclusion in his book, The Religious Life. 

"Whenever a sincere investigator meddles with scientific investiga- 
tion, he is instantly elevated to a higher degree of expression; and he 
can handle quite differently the daily words used, which he endeavors 
to explain to the right point of his conception for the general idea of 
human progress ! An honest man for instance, who could not free him- 
self from the primitive conception of teleological imagination, usually 
views the religious life with different senses than a man of science. 
To the honest man religion is a necessary sublimity, which brings the 
man to the higher steps of life. Tolstoy was one of them! But when 
a free spirit puts the words 'religious life' on his operating table, and 
cuts them over, he comes to different results. In regardto such a fact, 
the careful investigator feels a praiseworthy sensation, but he does not 
know where to place it! Nobody else is there — only a human shadow: I! 
In such a manner, Nietzsche wanted his followers to proceed and indeed 
that way we progressed ! Therefore we do not need to ask : ' l What is 
our work good for ? " In the first line we owe something to ourselves ! 
Namely : Justice ! Should that point prove a failure, then we must find 
the cause. The state for instance is a form of tremendous power 
with a person as a leader! The foundation of it is: the teleo- 
logical system ! Such an acknowledgment is justice which we owe to 
ourselves ! Over such a fact we should not nurse cheating. With such an 
assertion and as free spirits, we intend even to uphold and nurse the 
hidden doctors of honorable science. To such a devotion, Nietzsche 
recommended to the free spirits. We accepted it, and freshly resolved 
to carry on the good cause, regardless of our socially forced existence ! 
This is in so far consequent, as the authorities of our system worry them- 
selves about our well-being and doing ! But that is in our view-point 
nothing more than an act of espionage ! Therefore, we are daring enough 
to show our backs to such actions ! With lofty unconcern we want to 
go wherever it pleases us ! Therefore and in spite of all tyranical actions 
against the frivolous wanderer, we know, that we can dare to sing as 
it pleases us on our rampant wanderings ! With such a cheerful amuse- 
ment we can take up our investigation of "Religious Life"! 

"The Double Fight Against Evil." That is the introduction. In a 
moment of our meditation about the big battle ground, we construe 
a view of a tragedy. That is indeed a remarkable case. Somebody, 
somehow, somewhere, intended to affirm that Nietzsche was influenced 
through the parting of Wagner. The intelligence of the double fight 
against the inveterated evil, which we under no consideration can extir- 
pate, at least we are able to turn in a certain direction, so as to distract : 
all these must end in desperation for a sincere investigator. But on the 
other hand, daily life knocks upon the door every morning. Therefore 
Nietzsche acknowledged the primativeness of thoughts, which always 
lead to a nonessential tragedy, from which the poets of tragedy nursed 
their work and fame. Here is a free acknowledgment : Art was forcible 
compelled to glorify senselessness! This fact gave the foundation for 

as 



narcotic drunkeness, which deliberately bred our visible state of distress. 
The priests took this well nourished movement with their too much 
announced love, and blessed pompously the perished people, so as to 
nurse better their teleological system! In order to avoid the created 
evil, Nietzsche warned the free spirits before the new certainly coming 
tragedy, and instead recommended: the scientific investigation as a can- 
did necessity! 

Nothing is new under our sun, said once upon a time Ben Akiba. 
Just so old is the fight against tragedy. On this unexepected occasion, 
we wish to look hastily for a moment into the culture of the old Grecians. 
The old Grecian (if I may speak that way?) cynic, Diogenes, worked 
all his life against tragedy : to our sorrow, he was made a laughing stock 
from the authorities of that system! of form! He had to pay dearly 
for it ! Epictetus, once a slave, and later a philosopher, performed the 
same action, but to our enjoyment, the gentlemen of the form system 
never could play with him as with Diogenes ! Nevertheless, he was made 
a banished outcast, and died in Exile. Every folowing century brought 
forth all-over our globe such brave men, even then, when we have no 
historical proof of it! Such an obvious fact has its well founded cause. 
There existed in Christian development for eleven centuries a bloody 
and destructive war as means for the destruction of all amateur philoso- 
phy! High above the frightful and long times, remained for us, the 
acknowledgers of philosophy, a beautifully shining star: EPICTETUS! 
To this historical proof, we know only too well, that there in history 
shone many beautiful stars of noble character, but they were individually 
and forcefully blotted out. To all this historical atrocity, there came 
ever repeatedly individual fighters on the battle ground for freedom, 
who died individually for the cause. One century followed another, 
but the unnumbered individual victims became a big bulk! Each one 
was a pioneer in the battle of freedom. In this way came the row on 
Nietzsche. Hastily he acknowledged the continued evil of the corrupt 
system, and accordingly noticed in it a double fight! Even when we 
take Nietzsche as an honest reverencer of the old Grecian culture, we 
can clearly see that the bitter fight against the senseless tragedy did 
not start there for him ; — therefore, we must look somewhere else for 
the cause. The "Romantic School" of the 18th and 19th centuries did 
not dare to point its finger against the primitive evil. Accordingly this 
fact was true that, the individual had to go alone upon the battle-ground, 
and this time we find Schopenhauer there. The "Romantic School" 
lulled itself into a deep sleep, slowly forgetting its purpose, and there- 
fore blunderingly praised the art of its present system ! Schopenhauer 
did not like this flattery, and therefore dared to offend publicly the 
priests and their black art! Why was he able to do that? Short 
measure ! My dear gentlemen and well-ordered and curious ladies, he 
simply refused to accept any of their classified professions ! Further he 
resolved to be idle, and herewith to be a philosopher! Nevertheless, it is a 
fact that he was hatched out from the teleological representation, 
and indeed, his life remains as a great warning for the coming fighters 
of freedom. This deliberately delivered warning's medicine impressed. 

39 



the followers in such a manner that their awaken*ng came : — One rushed 
into the enemy's camp, and the other remained hanging onto the fight. 
This one was Nietzsche! He knew, that, and further he knew, that he 
had to give further this acknowledged warning ! In between he observed 
carefully the question of existence, and saw, how the men of a well sup- 
plied existence declined to take up this long and very bitter fight ! The 
well known motto, " After me the deluge!" exasperated Nietzsche. But 
on the other hand the system of tyrany pressed on him w J th full force, 
from which came to him a well understanding that the bitter fight had 
to begin momentarily! Then he turned his sincere appeal to the free 
hearts. When we take the whole matter into consideration, we see 
instantly our compelled classification of individual character for the 
fight, and herewith simultaneously comes the economical field! There is 
no room for doubt! When Nietzsche dared to take such a dangerous 
position in his writing, then remains for us to investigate his social 
position ! Now we have to bring our operating knives to the front. He 
knew what was waiting for him. At the same time, he wanted 
a complacent rest from the unbearable tyranny, because the eternal 
working for the old system appeared to him comical, even foolish! 
Through such a social mud we had to go through with our simple occu- 
pation, and the cause was ever the same : degradation of man ! but never 
our classification! What was there the main tactic? Nothing else, but 
the power of custom under the leading inspiration of the priests ! There- 
fore Nietzsche wished to avoid the fundamental idea of solution, so as to 
change the further consequences. Such a strong idea touched his health, 
and he longed for good advice. This acknowledgment showed him a 
new tragedy, — or should we say, a fatality ? ! He could no more like his 
well supplied posit*on as professor n the Basle university, because he 
acknowledged already the unavoidable DEGRADATION in his monot- 
onous work! NOW, he had to take courage! The motto " Health or 
Death" ruled his life! This bitter drop we, too, had to taste, and 
through our experiences we acknowledged in his book the prophecy of 
our own future ! The whole matter of such a calculation became still 
stronger and more tragic, because we saw positively the indescribable 
lonesomeness in the tremendous world's fight for freedom! 

It is true that Nietzsche masked his thoughts in individual aphorisms, 
but they follow by ranks nicely woven and concatenated. The term was 
always the same. From such a well ordered prospect of double fight, 
could only come as a result of knowledge, which dictated to him: " Sor- 
row is Knowledge ! ' ' Here he simply and personally confessed, and 
protested against the brutal power of the " Homines Religiosi," who 
constantly wanted to be the watchman and witness of every moment of 
his neighbor! From now on nothing was to him more frightful, and even 
fatal, that the teleological power, which took for its service the whimsical 
medium of cunningness, so as to sneak into the privacy of any individual ! 
Even that we tasted in our life of very simple social occupation! For 
this purpose he recommended as medicine the glorious frivolity of a 
Horaz not for constant steadiness, but anyhow until the solar-eclipse of 
our soul enter! Matter of fact: It would be far more sensible for a 

40 



fighter to hold on the well founded "matter of fact," than to run back 
into the "Romantic School," so as to fetch there the triumphing stand- 
ard of Christianity ! Please, read on page 113 : 

"For according to the present condition of knowledge it is absolutely im- 
possible to approach it without hopelessly soiling our intellectual conscience and 
giving ourselves away to ourselves and others." 

To show the primitive cause of sorrow, he dwelt on the great 
likeness of the teleological system, which claimed eternally the service 
of truth, and Justice, no matter which religion there existed! Therefore 
he wrote : 

" 'sensus allegoricus' of religions, who always and at any time took an ener- 
getic advance toward Science." 

With such a discrimination he separated religion from science, and 
even the old philosophical systems. Herein he even acknowledged the 
eloquence of Schopenhauer, in which eloquence the decaying religions 
found new nourishment, which he threw overboard, including Schopen- 
hauer, and then said : 

"As surely as from Schopenhauer's religious-moral interpretation of men and 
the world much may be gained for the understanding of the Christian and other 
religions, so surely also is he mistaken about the value of religion for knowledge." 

Nietzsche was a peculiar character in the matter of investigation 
of the social system, and here he pointed his finger daringly on the big 
mistake of Schopenhauer's time, namely, that the whole science glori- 
fied the movement of "Romantic School," and accordingly Schopen- 
hauer could not do otherwise, than go with his time. Had Schopenhauer 
lived, Nietzsche said, forty years later, when science placed its investi- 
gation on a well grounded fact, then Schopenhauer could hardly talk 
about "sensus allegoricus" of the different religions, and he would have 
most certainly decided on the following conclusion: "No religion, direct 
or indirect, either as dogma or as allegory, has ever contained a truth." 

Every sally he made against the many religions, he knew how to 
sustain, each one with a new blow, and again meant, that all religions 
knew most cunningly how to place their dogmas parallel with the 
progress of science, so as to claim the standard of a new philosophy, which 
should later on represent religion. Here Nietzsche thought that this 
cunning trick was a masterpiece of our thelogians of olden times, where a 
religion doubted its own salvation! Therefore he meant, a man can lie 
only once, but not always! At last the whole truth has to come to the 
front, because through the intensive fighting grew-up slowly but surely 
from itself the grave doubts of religion. The fact sustained the point: 
Religion and science never could harmonize! Science will have always 
its new facts in its investigation, which will nail-up positively the primi- 
tive LIES! Short talk, in spite of all the cimning combination of re- 
ligions for their standard of pretended triumph, Nietzsche never cared 
to accept the belief that there was such a thing as a superbeing, and he 
went with ease ahead! What he advised to the free spirits, he first did 
himself : The Hero to the front ! * 

41 



That was indeed an extraordinary hazard, which he expected once 
upon a time from Wagner, but to our sorrow he certainly was very much 
disappointed in his expectation ! We might imagine, that Nietzsche was 
satisfied with his extreme attack but we never meditate how such a 
resolute man as Nietzsche felt, when he was touched with doubt. Then 
a firmness came to him such as never before experienced for rummaging 
through the foundation of scientific investigation, so as to be able to 
bring forth the utmost clearness in the whole proceeding. Throughout 
his industrious work he suffered terribly, which caused mostly the disap- 
pointment in the progressive man; but now he even took new courage, 
so as to investigate his own seemingly incurable sickness. Upon this 
foundation, that great intellectuals lead humanity, he turned his method 
of investigation to religious culture, and eagerly looked for the primitive 
cause of it. This action was just such a circumstantial and lost investi- 
gation, and indeed a fresh risk. — The man lived in the middle of nature, 
and never knew a point of the laws which nature hid in itself! There- 
fore he took everything that was here as a fact, which had to come or 
stay away. The primitive man lacked every conception about the funda- 
mental and natural law of causation! Everything was to him a magic 
ceremony, — which fulfilled its own perfection! 

This peculiar position of the primitive man, Nietzsche observed 
from the pedestal of science. Prom this came the firm decision, that in 
the so-called progress of modern and eventful industrial life the man 
received tremendous feeling through the immense rattling, — which 
changed even the form of music! Therefore, the modern man feels quite 
differently his position in nature than the primitive man. Any sensible 
man can signify this obvious fact. An honest investigator should observe 
the " Rag-Time" music of our modern brother, the American, and he will 
quickly come to the conclusion, why Nietzsche longed at that time for a 
peaceful rest!? 

The one unwelcome point came through the next, and the primitive 
man had to comply his life according to the frightfulness of nature. This 
tremendous power unveiled to him an infinite and full empire of secrecy, 
which became so endless, that he imagined it as supernatural; or he 
thought and imagined the whole natural proceeding as God! Through 
such a peculiar intercalation of the colossal power of nature, the primi- 
tive man thought that he could arrange his life better, and he practiced 
so long on it, that therefrom came slowly but surely a dominant cult, 
a sure result of his meditation of this point! Through this incantation 
with nature, there developed different and many ceremonies ; — no doubt, 
therefrom must have come naturally and necessitiously as parallel an 
earthly power of domination^ which employed the human race generally 
throughout the whole year with cultus. The purpose of the whole pro- 
ceeding was, to order certain lawfulness to nature, which nature never 
possessed! Of course, the religious cultus sustained itself upon imagin- 
ation of such a magic, and we should not forget between man and men, — 
and the main magician is even older than the present black-clothed, white- 
faced gentleman: — the priest! 

With such a maskless imagination Nietzsche observed the real re- 

42 



ligious life, and meant that this cultus was a primitive art of sympathetic 
relation between man and men. Therefrom must have come the so- 
called personal prosperity upon account of collectivity, and uncondition- 
ally an art of thankfulness sprang forth, through which conclusion 
certain contract came even toward enemies ! In connection with this 
fact, Nietzsche brought his old study about Grecians, and marked, how 
the Olympic world came to understanding without any shame! That 
was even a noble action, he meant, which we can find in Greek religious 
cultus. — With such an explanation, and in connection with other cases, 
he meant further, — that a modern man can explain a cause, as for 
instance a religion, or even any politic with a well thought language, 
even when this language is the most corrupt in regard reason! There- 
from comes to us a very good evidence, that Nietzsche tried and even 
succeeded in combating Christianity upon the foundation of old Greek 
Cultus! Nevertheless, we have to take here in consideration, that he 
never could operate so sharply against Christianity, if there had not 
been the dominant power of modern science, which shone high above all 
primitiveness ! This obviousness shows us, that an institution like that of 
teleology, has nothing to do with the old time Grecians, because the 
whole system of the Olympic Gods was well supported with a trickily 
molded base of the teleological system, — which he sharply criticized! 
The autocratic system of the old Grecians, educated and nursed the 
general public with different Gods, for which action the rulers needed 
the dramatic poets; the same thing over again Christianity did in the 
past, and still the same thing is being done over again! All we need 
is to observe our condition and we will be convinced without cheating ! 
This point of our tacit reality points out its accusing finger even at 
Nietzsche, who felt a special elevation on academical intellectuality, and 
as such declined to be classed with the common proletarians, — who in- 
deed were and are deprived continually of their entitled daily piece of 
bread on account of that phantom hallucination, against which Nietzsche 
protested so much! Had he been mistaken as to his road in such a way, 
then he would have had to correct himself in his next steps. With such 
an acknowledged design, he even overlooked the main issue in his pro- 
ceedings, namely, those free spirits, whom he called for eternal battle 
with herald's bugle, were no others than those, who were outcasts from 
society on account of their rebelious thoughts! Although he glorified 
outcasts, and gypsies in his dedication to Wagner, he now refused to go 
the same road they had to go, and the cause of it was lie lacked power 
and health, and even the inflexible resolution! Nothing is more true 
than his masterly indication of the coming fact, that these outcasts are 
those heroes, who will forsake the old system of decadence, and they 
are sure to come ! This is a very satisfactory hint for us well experienced 
wanderers, and we are not so small minded, as not to thank him for his 
literary daring!!!.. With this venerable thankfulness we acquired a new 
acknowledgment, with which we went ahead cautiously! Therefore we 
deliberately decline to rush on the road of so-called reformation!.. From 
now on, we dare to look squarely at the proceeding of the art, — the 
primitive and obligatory savant of the teleological system. Knowledge 

43 



and not belief becomes our motto ! We decline no less to see the Olympic 
Gods as the present Gods ! We too have the cause at hand to investigate 
only that which we can see and feel! When there is no further discrim- 
ination between gods and men, then we too decline to recognize a God! 
Nothing in our life will be able to change our acknowledgment, not 
even then when the God was educated in the best school, and we never 
saw the inside of a school! Here we lack all the understanding of any 
Justice, by which a ten or eleven year old child is forced with brutal 
means through our social production, and the other one at the same 
time is carried into the school with finest gloves! 

It might be true, as Nietzsche somewhere stipulated, that education 
is the least point in development of character, but on the other hand we 
can easily observe, that no author ever could express his view-point 
without it! Therefore we do not care to acknowledge the terrible fact, 
that our well organized society put one child upon this, and the other 
upon another road, on which both have to go, so as to serve the authority 
behind the curtains ! Who would dare to assert here, that such an action 
does not produce bad blood among the population? ! I am too mild, yes 
even too cold-blooded to doubt this very fact! But, once an investigator 
has discovered the social injustice, then he has to put the same upon the 
golden scale! Every individual should receive his rights, or there will 
be trouble! Nietzsche dared to judge our social system with his own 
incurable sickness, and discovered how bad and corrupt the whole sys- 
tem was in managing the production and classification of the present and 
coming generations; so we too want to present our case, that we too 
may have the same social experience ! Therefore, nothing can keep us 
back from an energetic protest against the frightfulness of our social 
compulsion, which exploits our life, health, and wellf are ! and forces us 
to do what is contrary to our taste ! This visionary design shall be from 
now on our self-made WILL! Upon this tacit point we do not care to 
cheat ourselves and therefore take a firm position against the social 
duties forced upon us, and everything else that will cross our road as 
obstacles against human development. Should individuals be informed 
and completely conscious of this fact, then we feel ourselves justified in 
our present purpose! Had Nietzsche a written protest against our cor- 
rupt social system, then we want to replace the same with an energetic 
deed! We can hardly see the fruit ahead — but we are mounted upon a 
strong pedestal from which no missile can bring us down! The fact re- 
mains, we reflect differently today, on any aspect of our social gather- 
ing than we used to do! We walk around more cheerfully because we 
are sure of our knowledge ! 

In the next three articles Nietzsche again takes the part of the 
Grecians against Christianity; where he wanted it understood that all 
the ceremonies which Christians show forth concern a man who was 
crucified two thousand years ago. As a contrast he shows us the Olym- 
pian Gods. To make this case more obvious, to signify that he is right in 
his indication, I would like to put a question: "Why was Promotheus, 
the philosopher, chained alive to a cliff?" This historical fact shows me 

44 



that the Greek Gods, who were indeed the authorities of the state, did 
not play with an individual, who dared to take a "French" salue from 
all the social duty ! This was indeed a daring step, and such individuals 
knew why they did it ! They knew only too well that the time was short 
for them, for to rob the sunlight, and bring it between the population! 
This fact existed throughout their whole history and brought always a 
certain prospect of death, banishment or imprisonment to the individuals 
who dared to assert the opposite to the moral, which the teleological 
system secretly set up under the mark of a religion! Here, we should 
not be too lazy to look up the middle age, so as to see there the pitiful 
and of all the foremost scientists! No one of these men ever wanted to 
become a martyr, but each was beheaded for his daring through the 
dominant power of the teleological system. Nevertheless, when science 
gained the open road through such victims, it became easy even for 
Nietzsche to write more freely! But please, who gave him such a pro- 
tection? The fact remains that the people who thirsted for knowledge 
provided that protection; but they were not all free spirits! This fact 
of the struggle which science put up for a free road, we have to acknowl- 
edge, and with this acknowledgment to stipulate our aim, so as to remain 
truthful to the centuries' old and bravely fought-for fruit, which we want 
to bring to a riper maturity. Here we should not forget that that there 
were forever too early victims! With this free confession we want to 
recognize our own social condition, nevertheless we want to remain firmly 
on our undertaken aim. If we recognize this fact, then it musts become 
clear to us that we will advance and that we will reach our aim! even 
when we know : that a terrible struggle is before us ! This became true 
even for Nietzsche, and we can see, on page 126, how he calls out with a 
herald's voice: 

"Christianity arose for the purpose of lightening the heart; but now it must 
first make the heart heavy in order afterwards to lighten it. Consequently it will 
perish." 

We do not doubt this wonderful prediction, even now when we know 
how far away the reaching point is; nevertheless and in between 
time we claim, that Nietzsche relinquished too soon from his fundamental 
investigation about the primitive cause of religious life throughout the 
teleological system, and plunged with his whole life power upon the 
present system of Christianity ! That will not change my view-point when 
we both find ourselves upon the big battle-field, where eternally comes 
some terrible contradiction. We know very well how he meant his point, 
and therefore we want to keep ourselves on the well-praised present. We 
are thankful for the information about the gray antiquity! However, 
we do not care to call it back, not even in our sleep ! With this indica- 
tion we wish to keep ourselves strictly in the present, and never wonder 
too much about a book, because each book decides its own time, and 
with it goes its accounting. When Nietzsche illuminated us with a mar- 
velous aphorism, then we should take it as granted, and therefore 
be warned by all the unnecessary chatterings! At the same time this 
warning helps us to gain a complete firmness in our daily life, — namely 

45 



to work industriously further along such scientific investigation. Nietz- 
sche did the same deed, and therefore we want to honor him. He never 
forgot the real foundation of the detailed investigation for such a 
deed ! With such a carefully molded determination he rushed into the 
infinite chaos, where he lighted up a dazzled light, as glorification for 
psychology, which value we never can underestimats in the purpose of 
this investigation. 

In conclusion, he explained the individual mentality in different 
directions, which are known to the scientists, — even in the highest de- 
gree ! In this direction he talked on Homer, remaining by the Olympic 
Gods, and nursing there his old "hobby-horsical" aim.! Then he said 
joyfully, that Homer run around the rule of the Olympic Gods, — as 
when he would be a very religious man. The cause of it is plain that 
Homer was forced from his well sheltered superstition to play with the 
Gods as a sculptor plays with his stone. From this fact he does not 
care to exclude Aeschyles, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Goethe, and I 
want to add to it H. Heine. To mark this point psychologically, we too 
feel the same goodness in us and we want to handle the words just as 
well as the Gods themselves! Nevertheless, there remains only one point: 
— whether I dare or not ! The individual has to decide the proceeding ! 
Did I nurse and indeed reached the frivolity of a Horaze with my scien- 
tific investigation, then I can claim, that I carry the deed of my aim 
with perfect lust! Should I lack courage for it, then I have to wrap 
myself in a cover of religiousness, to keep quiet and wait for my time! 
This acting results from the sincere warning of Nietzsche, which I took 
as a dear law for my personal and present protection! On this point 
I will rest easy on "the field of patience !" 

Nietzsche knew only too well that he was incurable ; if that indeed 
was the real case, then I want to investigate this written hint. In the 
first moment of my meditation, I remark : We live sorrowfully in an 
undescriptive and ardent desire for salvation! This fact certainly be- 
longs to the religious feeling! Nietzsche wanted the case of the religion 
to be understood in this direction! Therefore he produced a very long 
article in which he lead psychology strongly to the front without any 
support of methology! That is delightful for us, because we see the 
infinite complication of our present as it is in all its tacit realities ! That 
was Nietzsche's daring against religion which we never care to under- 
estimate ! With this remarkable point he unveiled the primitiveness of 
all awaiting Salvationists, who felt restless and discouraged in their 
social duty! Here we confess, that these ardent and desirable struggle 
for salvation were and still are a pitiful act of the utmost desperatism 
imaginable ! Another confession : It is not possible for us to meet this 
kind of people with the same feeling as when we meet with our equals! 
We can not dodge from this, hence our meeting with such people natur- 
ally becomes a horror ! 

This extreme explanation Nietzsche set momentarily aside, because 
of its unclear mental action; and then he came swiftly back, so jis to talk 
on the ascetic, — for whose moral foundation many great thinkers medi- 
tated uselessly! That for Nietzsche was not marvelous, because science 

46 



did not have time for a final statement in this case of a hermit and his 
moral standard! Proof of it: The cunning hermit, with his meek and 
holy face, wanted a dominion! And because he could not find it on this 
earth, he darkens the atmosphere above his head. We can read on 
page 140: 

"This crushing of one's self, this scorn of one's own nature, this spernere se 
speirnl, of which religion has made so much, is really a very high degree of 
vanity." 

This urgency (so to speak!) was made, by the different religions, 
a high point to their own advantage : on which moral foundation the 
religions hung strongly and nursed their purpose. This step of profitable 
prejudice, the cunning hermit quickly noticed, and took for his own use ; 
but at the same moment an ardent desire existed in him for an easy life! 
Now comes the most remarkable point of psychology : — Because this her- 
mit could not work for his own wellfare and freedom, he had to decide 
to serve the will of a stranger, whoever he might be, so long as his call 
was represented in that individual ! Then he worked industriously on 
an extensive law, or better to say on a standard rite equal to the well- 
known Brahma's rule, which odered through its sacred ordinance the 
medicine for every minute ! Such a forceful subjugation Niezsche meant 
was the most mighty means for the ruling of his own self ! Namely, such 
a "vision" created occupation, and killed lonesomeness without any 
force to his own mentality, — but beneath this "vision" stood the most 
characteristic view-point of impertinence ; the hermit felt responsibility 
to no man after his finished deed ! With such a conscience disappeared 
every self torture, and still. more repentance never showed up! This con- 
clusion sprang from the fundamental thoughts of the ascetic, who be- 
came quickly the leader and spurner of all the religions ! 

To investigate psychologically this, indeed veracious conspicuousness, 
which worked through the ascetic example so strongly upon the men- 
tality of the subordinated people, — that we must see as a result an endless 
and desperate fight ! The fact remains : Through such a well established 
and pompous example everybody declined to use his own will, and 
served the teleological institution ! This characteristic remark could not 
be better expressed than in Nietzsche's following words on page 142: 

"When we remember the present relation of man to the State, we find that, 
even here, unconditional obedience is more convenient than conditional. The 
saint, therefore, makes his life easier by absolute renunciation of his personality, 
and we are rristaken if in that phenomenon we admire the loftiest heroism of 
morality. In any case it is more difficult to carry one's personality through 
without vacilation and unclearness than to liberate one's self from it in the above- 
mentioned manner; moreover, it requires far more spirit and consideration." 

This minutely investigated meditation brings us back to ourselves, 
and shows us what kind of a position w T e must take as individuals against 
the big thousand years' monster system of teleology! This willing sub- 
mission to the State where nobody accepts his obligation toward his 
neighbor, Nietzsche mentioned here for the first itme. Indeed, that does 
not belong as a conclusion to the Olympic Gods ! And if I may connect 
it with this foundation, we can make for ourselves a most gorgeous 
picture of the whole system. Here we can not wonder : When we forget 

47 



to glorify the State's greatness! Armed with such a momentarily ap- 
proaching fact should we be astonished, or at least frightened when we 
are made the early victims of our neighbors ! But in spite of these truth- 
ful facts, we may not allow in us a feeling, as will compell us to confes- 
sion of the guilty one ! Therefore no repentance may worry us ! In con- 
nection we may put to ourselves many questions, but, at last, we must 
answer them personally I In this manner we attain a most remarkable 
result : Our life is strictly a personal matter ! Therefore we always have 
some weights in our hands, which we can throw in the golden scale, 
when we want to equalize our position to Nietzsche's Herald's Challenge 
for the eternal fight against the teleological system, and its most faithful 
servant: the State! Through this daring resolution, we come back to 
the Gypsy-road. Woe to us then, if we lack the brave armament of 
psychology! Relative to this unexpected point, Nietzsche wrote on 
pages 142-143 : 

"After having found in many of the less easily explicable actions manifesta- 
tions of that pleasure in emotions per se, I should like to recognise also in self- 
contempt, which is one of the signs of holiness, and likewise in the deeds of self- 
torture (through hunger and scourging, mutilation of limbs, feigning of madness) 
a means by which whole natures fight against the general weariness of their life- 
will (their nerves) ; they employ the most painful irritants and cruelties in order 
to emerge for a time, at all events, from that dullness and boredom into which 
they so frequently sink through their great mental indolence and that submission 
to a strange will already described." 

The most beautiful point in the whole of his magnificent explana- 
tion is, that he knew how to illuminate with a small ray the willing sub- 
mission of the people, and their followers in their present outrageous_ac- 
tions. They have no other choice than to justify their own lives; they 
have to give to themselves an explanation of their actions before they be- 
gin! Such a hair-splitting makes life intolerable, and an ardent desire 
calls for victory or even for surrender ! With the first point, the willing 
submissive people go around proudly, and with the second point they look 
for a righteous vengeance! That is very clear for us, and therefore we 
need no further explanation for our decision in the whole proceeding! 
Nevertheless, we want to stipulate a point: A man who has his own 
well nursed WILL, will always think the matter over before he consents 
to submit to the State! There are so many tricks which can keep us 
away from impertinence! Only from such a conclusion can come to us 
an awakening for personal progress! But we should not worry when 
we discover here, that we face at this moment the life of the Gypsy! In 
opposition to this fact of our own life's condition, the matter of an 
ascetic stands differntly. With his willing submission he has discovered 
a terrible enemy in himself, whom he must fight involuntarily! This ex- 
traordinary action would not be so terrible if the ascetic would keep it 
in his hermitage ; but he wishes to bring the case of his abstemious life 
before the public, so as to catch their admiration, and with this admira- 
tion he hopes to get a new charm for his own life ! There is no mistake 
in such an action of our pitiful ascetic, because the great problem of 
life only becomes interesting when he can throw his anger abruptly upon 
the useless sensuality! Here we must carefully meditate: How far can 
such a proceeding go in our well organized society ! 

48 



Here Nietzsche brought sensuality to the front for the first time and 
only because he pointed at the value of regular sexual intercourse which 
coresponds with propagation of the specie. Further he said, that absem- 
iousness calls for admiration from the exhausted and vulgar, and that 
such a declamation accuses the true sensualist of heresy and even damns 
them ! Under such declaimed influence throughout the centuries children 
came to us who brought the awful mark of a bad conscience as an in- 
heritance. There is no true moral uplift as a cure for such damage, 
Nitzsche meant, that if Christianity and the other religions ever wanted 
to sustain truth, then they had to drive away unconditionally such a 
nonessential idea from our social life ! It remains true, that this view of 
inherited bad conscience poisoned the public opinion when it claimed 
that every child is born with a sin! Yes, indeed, a glorified man of 
Christianity went even so far as to say: "The greatest sin of man is 
that he was ever born!" (144). 

Completing the division on religious life, Nietzsche brought the most 
important significance of the Spirit as the opposite of the vulgar, — which 
has indeed a historical value ! The Saint pushed his idea of domination 
vigorously against all risks to the highest step, and reached it. The 
careful definition of the immense Infinity otherwise well known as all- 
mighty God, the Saint incorporated so strong that he appeared together 
with Christianity high up, there to wait on the last day, when the judg- 
ment will come to both! Here Nietzsche became aghast, and wondered 
that there were still many thinkers, who believed on a Saint in a period, 
where seldom a person believed on God! 



VIII. 

The fourth division "Concerning the Soul of Artists and Authors" 
had to come as a kind " crown" to the other three divisions as an illumina- 
tion — just because the artists and authors surely belonged to the teleolog- 
ical system. In between we will not become terrified, when we find Methol- 
ogy, some old Gods — artists, and momentarily plunge into the lauded pres- 
ent, where we can see the drag-chains of our artists! For this purpose 
Nietzsche had his cause, he indicated his meaning clearly! To put a 
perfect characterization on his hidden thoughts, he turned the most tick' 
lish sarcasm upon the artists who imagined great things for their ap- 
pearance in public opinion. Nobody ever asked: "What can come from 
such vain coquetry?" But Nietzsche said everything about it on page 
154: 

"It is the business of the science of art to contradict this illusion most 
decidedly, and to show up the mistake and pampering of the intellect, by means 
of which it falls into the artist's trap." 

In order to strengthen his point, he showed us, how the artists are 
less inclined toward truth than the thinkers ; and furthermore, the artists 
even resist the pensive interpretation of life ; they do not care to see 
the cold-blooded result of scientific investigation, because that circum- 
stantially ruins their reputation. Therefore their throng becomes stronger 
for the simply selected work, and thus they avoid the scientific and gran- 

49 



ular investigation. But Nietzsche was not yet satisfied with his sar- 
castic remark; he worked still more industriously on his undertaking, 
which he wanted to bring to perfection; then he pointed out abruptly 
that the artists are indeed only very curious shadows of the plastered 
sepulchres ! The farther he went with his explanation, the more per- 
sonal he became, also more competent in his fundamental utterance. 

In the next article he put the poet on the same pedestal with the 
Saint, because both have an inclination for the creation of an easy life! 
A poet is a man, who through the pressure of his purpose has to up- 
root antidulivian history, and take from it what he most needs to fulfill 
his expectation of an easy life, and decorate them with the colors of the 
present so as to hide the old dust from the thoughtful present ! Fruther- 
more, the poet is inclined to gather together the most wonderful 
decoration of the old religions and cultures, and mold them to a shining 
beauty in the presnt. For this work Nietzsche called the poets : Epigones! 
That was indeed a very strong dose for the artists, — and I must con- 
fess: for me, the real butter for my daily bread. Furthermore, what I 
read on page 155 : 

"There are, however, certain drawbacks to their means of lightening life, 
they appease and heal only temporarily, only for the moment; they even prevent 
men from labouring towards a genuine improvement in their conditions, inasmuch 
as they remove and apply palliatives to precisely that passion of discontent that 
induce to action," delighted me very much. 

Nothing that we read surprises us, because the clearness of the 
deeply investigated intelligence is too correct! But in a moment he 
shows us again a new hint : When the artist raised his standard, then the 
different religions stopped swinging their banner! Art takes over in 
its busy hand the emotional feeling of the crowd, and holds them strong- 
ly with an iron grip, hiding the ghostlike antiquity, the thick cloud of 
heavy incense, and all the church-shadows which hang behind the well 
ornamented curtain; but a well informed investigator well sees other- 
wise. Here Nietzsche became angry, and protested vigorously against 
the soul controlled by custom which never wanted to allow that the ugly 
man has place in the art-work! Art always brings beauty to the front 
because that is the custom ! Such a conclusion brings to our art the al- 
most forgotten methaphysic on the daylight. That makes the heart 
of a thinker heavy and here we can read farther on this point, on page 
158: 

"How strong metaphysical need is and how difficult nature renders our de- 
parture from it nay be seen from the fact that even in the free spirit, when he 
has cast off everything metaphysical, the loftiest effects of art can easily pro- 
duce a resounding of the long silent, even broken, metaphysical string. It may 
be, for instance, that at a passage in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony he feels him- 
self floating above the earth in a starry dome with the dreams of immortality in 
his heart; all the stars seem to shine round him, and the earth to sink farther 
and farther away. If he becomes conscious of this state, he feels a deep pain 
at his heart, and sighs for the man who will lead back to him his lost darling, be 
it called religion of metaphysics. In such moments his intellectual character is 
put to the test." 

He meant that we still have many free spirits, who lose their heads 
entirely in such an occasional moment. Nobody could ever bring such 

50 



a sarcastic remark. Out of such a tacit reality; where the intellectual 
character is put on brink for trial, Nietzsche jumped back into antiquity, 
from which he brought the inconsiderateness of Homer, and put it in the 
present light, so as to show, how necessary it would be for us today: 
to do the same thing! He showed how Homer inconsiderately tried hard 
to hush-up the unspeakable sharpness of the Greek mentality ! Tt might 
be true (and who dares to know, what Nietzsche meant occasionally?), 
that he intended to make another sarcastic remark upon the old Grecians, 
who bowed unavoidably with great loyalty before their Gods — but when 
we bring the whole construction of his hidden thoughts before our pres- 
ent thoughtful investigation, we quickly discover our own artists ! Again, 
it might be, that the whole indication becomes mysterious, but it is 
clearly seen that in the present proceedings of the teleological system 
there is no change whatsoever. Everything is here as it ever was over 
there, and at least our artists dare to take the real time, so as to talk 
on the fundamental and true case of our social life! Obviously we can 
see in Nietzsche's thoughts the triumphant recurrence of the old Grecians' 
cowardness, — coming back into our vaunted present! 

In the next article Nietzsche showed how our art had always cause 
to watch eagerly, that the surprised crowd should believe on the well- 
ornamented conceptions ! Farther more, with this forced belief the crowd 
should take and politely accept all the art's performances as a letter of 
grace from the Heaven, and still more as a true earthly wisdom! Here 
comes the fact: The "artful genius" is only that artist, who can make 
the crowd happy! In the meantime he is elevated on his pedestal, from 
whence his sound tinkles too remotely, and so the artist can not find 
the right kind of en joiner for his lawful indication. It is true that 
tremedous pathos frequently comes, but fundamentally, he has no 
right to make the exhausted crowd happy. There is no doubt here must 
follow the parting of tragedy, and fatality ransacks humanity ! Here even 
the "artful genius" notices how he is deprived of the right to mingle 
with the present. This knowledge drives him to desperation, and his 
eloquence becomes sharper and his voice harsher. Such an expression 
calls for deep sorrow and just because ambition and envy are too strong. 
Here Nietzsche separated drastically the customarily glorified char- 
acter from the genius of knowledge, who seeks to hide all the world's 
pain, and with it to feel secure for the future construction of our society. 
Furthermore, this genius of knowledge knows how to forget the present ; 
conversely the daring artist of public happiness must play a desperate 
play! Oh! If only this truthful hint could be once understood! 

Nietzsche had not finished his critic so quickly and therefore he 
went ahead: Once the daring artist has made his pompous, momentary, 
and admirable effect, then degeneration must follow inevitably, because 
the vain, onlooking crowd can not imitate, and therefore the artist be- 
comes himself vain, which vanity makes him see lonesomeness in the na- 
ture. The happiest moment in such a chaos would be when the different 
geniuses would check themselves in a corner. There would be the pos- 
sibility then that even the inferior writer might appear in the limelight. 
That this is the dangerous point is acknowledged, Nietzsche showed from 

61 



it how the art becomes very dangerous to the artist. Once the artist is 
caught away from the art, he shudders terribly, and instantly up-roots 
once more the period, where the art blossomed most beautifully in the 
shadowy antiquity ! This means nothing more than to work backward, 
and obligingly do service to the teleological system! With this tactic 
acknowledging of the momentary appearance, the artist is compelled to 
believe on the old Gods, and methological Demons, and becomes through 
his negligence degenerated to such a degree that he at last hates the 
science! Such a terrible effect, Nietzsche meant, could even drive a 
Homer and Aeschylus to an incurable melancholy, and to die of grief ! 

This well worked out observation of our artists easily can be traced 
to Nietzsche's own life, wherein he investigated the teleological system 
with the fundamental part of the art, and upon the drastic fact saw the 
system's future, but at the same time acknowledged his own pitiful end! 
Very much had been set already on paper about his end. His excruciating 
pain made him prophetic enough, so as to show up the result of the deli- 
cate question of the art ! Only that way, he could look through the men- 
tality of the artist ! The true psychology comes after the experience. In 
spite of such a palpable intelligence, Nietzsche could not give up his cause, 
— he freely nursed his passion for strong sensitiveness, so as to put on 
paper the short comings of the art, which is really the primitive loyalty 
to the teleological system, as a warning to the free spirits. Right be- 
hind he came in full swing against the dramatic art, and said that this 
art is clumsy and worthless, and never created with its poesy a true 
TYPE! Dramatic art, as well the other customary art, expose the ex- 
ternal man but never the internal ! Therefore he meant, he never would 
care, as a scientist, to meddle with the externality of a man, because the 
earthly life depends on thoughts, and never on externality! That fact, 
he meant, had driven back so many free spirits into the enemy's camp! 
— because no one cared for such a new system : where the entire art of 
custom was excluded. From this we can see clearly that Nietzsche had 
thought for a long time about a prolonged wandering : either wandering 
for mental conclusion, or upon the country road like an aimless and 
strolling gypsy! This necessary parting for the cause of truth brought 
him the most bitter gall! Nevertheless, there were only a few, who 
read his sentences, and never construed thoughts over them ! In opposi- 
tion to this psychological fact, he could not hide what was working in 
the other man, and therefore he armed himself with thoughts for the 
coming battle. Here he reminded us of the inconsi deration of a "human- 
all-too-human" man, who noticed in himself all the antique's art-per- 
formances of great decadence, and put them thoughtfully on paper. 
That was Nietzsche himself, because we see indicated how he gave way 
to art and declined to make the crowd merry! With this deliberate de- 
nunciation he abandoned the name of artist, and daringly protested 
against the existing injustice of society. This was at that time an incom- 
parable daring and who knows but it would be so today too ! Therefore 
we need not wonder in astonishment why he wrote only for the free 
spirits! Furthermore, we should not deceive ourselves about it, because 
on his writing still depends our earthly and social life ! The experience 

52 



taught us how terrible it is to see our scanty and vegetated existence, 
but when the talk comes to development of humanity, then our daily 
life : is transformed into a tragedy ! 

Nietzsche was abrupt, sarcastic, and in his deliberate sensitiveness 
he reached the utmost point of psychology, with which knowledge he 
had at hand a well founded acknowledgement, and with this he became 
angry, and threw back at the artists any kind of belief! Yes, he even 
went further, and rejected the enormous vanity which the pompous genius 
claimed for himself ! Briefly speaking, he wanted to be closely chained, 
and declined to accept as a fact that a genius falls from Heaven like the 
rain ! Therefore he denied every so-called talent, and even the well known 
smartness. From this we should learn, that a master must be nursed 
throughout long years. He recommended that the firm self-made man 
remain at his chosen profession, and further work indutsriously so as 
to command by such a practice his coming thoughts ! To this resolute 
individual this determination was a sacred case, regardless what his 
neighbors would think or speak of such a profession! That was easily 
understood, — nevertheless also correctly written, and with it Nietzsche 
nailed the prattling tongue of custom on the pillory ! Only an energetic 
man can progress in his profession of gathering thoughts, and thus 
discover the fundamental cause of every social evil. Such tactic, can 
make of us firm and perfect men ! 

There is no chaos in Nietzsche's book. His thoughts and explana- 
tions came as if they had to come that way ! In the meantime he grazed 
every field, which could give any nourishment to the teleological system ! 
After he illuminated the customary genius, he asked himself, ' ' What was 
the danger and the gain in the cult of genius?" and he answered on 
page 168: 

"The belief in great, superior, fertile minds is not necessarily, but still very 
frequently, connected with that wholly or partly religions superstition that those 
spirits are of superhuman origin and possess certain marvelous faculties, by 
means of which they obtained their knowledge in ways quite different from the 
rest of mankind. They are credited with having an immediate insight into the 
nature of the world, through a peep-hole in the mantle of the phenomenon as it 
were, and it is believed that, without the trouble and severity of science, by 
virtue of this marvelous prophetic sight, they could impart something final and 
decisive about mankind and the world." 

And again on the page 170-171 : 

"In a few rare cases this form of insanity may also have been the means by 
which an all-round exuberant nature was kept within bounds; in individual life 
the imaginings of frenzy frequently exert the virtue of remedies which are poisons 
in themselves; but in every 'genius' that believes in his own divinity the poison 
shows itself at last in the same proportion as the 'genius' grows old; we need 
but recollect the example of Napoleon, for it was most assuredly through his 
faith in himself and his star, and through his scorn of mankind, that he grew to 
that mighty unity which distinguished him from all modern men, until at last, 
however, this faith developed into an almost insane fatalism, robbed him of his 
quickness of comprehension and penetration, and was the cause of his down- 
fall." 

This warning is clear, and I think a firm man who has determined 
inclination toward fatality can make this peculiar point still stronger! 
A genius never flew down from a cloud, but was slowly nursed through 

63 



a well-ordered system, or even through obstacles though impressed with 
the belief of genius! We find creditable evidence, that there is a strong 
dose of superstition in the highest intellectuals. For this perfection we 
can look with easy repose at a momentarily appearing art. Here we 
should not be so foolish as to overlook an artfully composed strategem 
of policy, but still stronger we should look obligingly at a great field- 
marshal like Ceasar, Napoleon, Bismark, and then at all the men back 
of such heroes, as for instance Richard Wagner the great musician; 
then at all the great intellectuals who compose the very stable machinery 
of our States! When we study these men, and their great deeds, and 
mentally digest their accomplishments we should consider ourselves as 
small as a church-mouse: — very small: — YES, still smaller: — until we 
disappear to nothing! This very cowardly feeling is quickly noticed by 
the State Genius and he rushes into the modification of the well-estab- 
lished Cult, which elevates him so high that his eloquence and longing 
for truth comes to a collapsing brink! DOWN WE GO! This artfully 
composed distance was always up-held with a well-arranged system! 
Whoever lias eyes : looks at it ! With such an observation we can easily 
discriminate between classic antiquity and modern Democracy, which 
was indeed created through the cunningness of Christianity! Here we 
have to include the general public, and Nietzsche did it, because tragedy 
is linked to the proceeding creation and can not be divided. That is the 
work of the dramatic art ! Through a well organized system of diplom- 
acy the public became chained to the WORK-A-DAY WORLD and in 
this manner became crushed with exhaustion! Such a proceednig creates 
a terrible suffering ; but to lighten this burden, the dramatic art is com- 
pelled to bring out some very sensational plays which will drive the pub- 
lic to crocodile tears! That is the seed-corn, from which the public can 
reap their fruit! Therefore we have glowing evidence that the proceed- 
ing of a spoiled and lying system can not go on forever that way ! Who 
could sober up through such a sentimental opportunity, or recollec- 
tion and then designate what was the real intention of such a corrupt 
system toward the general public, who had thirsted for ages for the 
imagined truth? The whole case is not so very ticklish, nor even enig- 
matical, because the preparation and delivering worked slowly behind the 
curtain, which carefully covered the primitive cause of the public call 
for relief from their unbearable burden ! When even the immediate 
necessity of the dramatic art made the general public deadly pale, and 
weeping-blessed, so we can see that some other feeling developed! The 
expected damage never came, and the general public even became witty, 
and laughed instead of weeping! This fact, Nietzsche called the most 
comical point in the whole progress of dramatic art! 

After he had completely finished the dramatic art, he turned de- 
lightfully his attention to the authors. That is for us desperate wand- 
erers living in faraway countries the real water from the highest moun- 
tains for our almost idle mill! When there is nothing more to amuse 
us in our stagnated society, then we seclude ourselves in a peaceful 
corner, well marked, regardless of our social classification, and there, in 
that grave seclusion we crack the nuts of life, which we find in the 

54 



different and glorious books! We do not care to cheat ourselves with 
the articles forced upon the public to the discouragement of our modem 
commerce, which still commemorates the big Egyptian Holy-Book, as 
a standard against all the other books! Oh! my dear contemporary 
friends, how many books do you think we have put aside, because they 
have no nourishment for our appetite? We often laugh very sweetly, 
when we read in Nietzsche's books, how a thinker unveils his thoughts 
too much ; how a poet gives too much of his thoughts to a beautiful rhyme 
and just because they can not find the right step ; they declare the books 
which can not be translated are not worth reading ! Then comes the 
best author who is ashamed to be one I That certainly pacifies us still 
more in our seclusion, and we bear the daily tragedy with ease! With 
such self enlightenment we discover what Nietzsche originally intended 
to say! He touched upon the social system of our vaunted present, and 
instantly pointed out, how most authors suffer a real proleatarian need! 
That is an obvious hint from his own life ,and you can read his con- 
fession on page 189 : 

"The thinker, as likewise the artist, who has put his best self into his 
work, feels an almost malicious joy when he sees how mind and body are being 
slowly damaged and destroyed by time, as if from a dark corner he was spying 
a thief at his money-chest, knowing all the time that it was empty and his 
treasures in safety." 

From such a marvelous composition regarding the lives of the best 
authors, we gain a metaphysical vision, but our sensitiveness grows 
stronger when we see in his writing the true case of a writer's own ex- 
perience. How lovely it is. to read on page 190: 

"Should pity and fear really be unburdened through tragedy, as Aristotle 
would have it, so that the hearers return home colder and quieter? Should ghost- 
stories really make us less fearful and superstitious?" 

Once more he came back upon the artists, and wrote on page 195 : 

"By virtue of extraordinary intellectual exercise through the art-development 
of the new music, our ears have been growing more intellectual. For this reason 
we can now endure a much greater volume of sound, much more 'noise,' because 
we are far better practised in listening for the sense in it than were our an- 
cestors." 

At last he embraced with unspeakable enjoyment other points of 
the art, and finished the division on authors in this way, as we read 
on pages 205-6 : 

"Just as in old age we remember our youth and celebrate festivals of memory, 
so in a short time mankind will stand towards art: its relation will be that of a 
touching memory of the joys of youth. Never, perhaps, in former ages was art 
dealt with so seriously and thoughtfully as now when it appears to be surrounded 
by the magic influence of death. We call to mind that Greek city in southern 
Italy, which once a year still celebrates its Greek feasts, amidst tears and mourn- 
ing, that foreign barbarism triumphs ever more and more over the customs its 
people brought with them into the land; and never has Hellenism been so much 
appreciated, nowhere has this golden nectar been drunk with so great delight, 
as amongst these fast disappearing Hellens. The artist will soon come to be re- 
garded as a splendid relic, and to him, as to a wonderful stranger on whose 
power and beauty depended the happiness of former ages, there will be paid such 
honour as is not often enjoyed by one of our race. The best in us is perhaps 

55 



inherited from the sentiments of former times, to which it is hardly possible for 
us now to return by direct ways; the sun has already disappeared, but the heavens 
of our life are still glowing and illumined by it, although we can behold it no 
longer." 

******* 

The fifth division "The Signs of Higher and Lower Culture ' '—had 
been introduced in Herr Johannes Schlaf's book on page 143 as follows: 

"Her© too Nietzsche becomes in some way straightforward, even intolerable. 
He does not see the 'Human- All-Too-Human,' that someone of his-equals would 
have had certainly, however, differently perceived and in a nobler conception of 
needy condition; he sees only the plain vulgar, the falsehood of the man, and drops 
on it, as when it would be, who knows what!" 

That is for us evident and conceivable, although intolerable to swal- 
low even the predigested. It is a writing, which can hardly be trans- 
lated, and therefore we want to prepare our appreciation, exquisitively 
for the utmost point, so that we can meet our beloved defenders of the 
teleological system. Just because we investigated so bravely the last 
division, and never for a moment perturbed our mentality, and be- 
cause the proceeding from the last division flowed into this division, I 
avoided deliberately the numeration of it, and instead put seven stars as 
symbolic meaning of life's seven principles. In putting such a cabalistic 
symbol, I was instantly reminded of the self -construed maxim, that, 
when a man plunges into a rushing tide, he might as well flow to un- 
known regions, regardless of his destination! Literary points should 
never represent anything else than the life of the author! So do I 
understand Nietzsche, and so I want to believe ! 

Whatever was or still is, constitutes the brutal and barbarous cir- 
cumstances in our social organization which point of culture was called 
by the carrier "so and so," and besides, all the lies which abnegated 
the true fact of human living ; forever putting the undescriptive stipula- 
tion of righteousness to twist the truth; everything that was pressed 
from horrible fighting to reaction, wherein the past, as well as the 
present struggle of the truthful and assiduous Free-Spirit can be ac- 
counted for; then the thousand years' monster of the teleological sys- 
tem, will be swept for all time out from society; and everything else, 
which could be held able for the struggle of culture, Nietzsche bound 
together in a bundle, and put in orderly in this fifth division. As we 
know, he was very free, and as such a free spirit he did not care a rap 
what became of his well investigated results, so long as he nailed down 
the fundamental fact of social evil. After he had put the whole sys- 
tem, from the beginning of our historical proof throughout the cen- 
turies, under his sharp knives of psychological operation, leaving it bleed- 
ing to the last drop, he discovered at last a noble character, remaining 
from decaying system: who was willing to do things differently, and 
who determinedly wanted a higher culture, and even know the possi- 
bility of it ! Until this time he has talked only of a certain system, which 
always resisted with the most dirty means a higher and nobler culture, 
in order to sustain itself, and remain under the same outrageous rule! 
Coming to this point, obviously he saw that out of this terribly big chaos 
of undescriptive decadence were flaming some individual characters, who 
would fight such a systematic falsehood bravely to their last drop of 

66 



blood, and bring it to a collapsing brink! The stronger and bitterer tht 
struggle, the stronger and more visible the degeneration, the more bar- 
barous will become the bloody fight ! From such a tremendous fight can 
not come the old pretended peace, and we saw, and see it today, that the 
states-authorities (and not the so-called capitalists!) were ever on the 
alert to receive with barbarous vigilence the ever repeated riots of the 
different groups : all over the world! To this states-chaos of Ceasar's an- 
tiquity to put a stable, and firm HALT, that only would be the starting 
point of evolution to a higher and nobler culture ! That would be the only 
real application to free ourselves from our unheard-of barbarous 
condition ! 

Provided, some intellectual reads this conclusion without security 
on his own life's power, he will throw this most excellent book in a 
dusty corner, from where he never will pick it up! We do not care 
to cheat ourselves in this and therefore we shall also be on the alert 
against our customary antagonists! Who are they? YOU, my friends 
knew them better than my pen can describe! The human composition 
in writing and oratory did not start yet, save Nietzsche! Nevertheless, 
when we conceive the present f rightfulness, nothing else should scare us ! 
Now we have to go fearlessly aside and there in our chosen seclusion 
think more on this very serious point! No matter what our neighbors 
might gossip about us, we should remain on guard! We know why we 
do that ! We know, too, what kind of cultivated memory we have, and 
therefore we do not care to forget all those noble characters, who bled 
throughout the centuries, and who are still marked as the most infamous 
TYPES by the representation of the teleological system! We know to 
whom honor belongs! When we have no other occasion to satisfy our 
rightful indemnification, then we want honor, in spite of all chicannery; 
this excellent book as exchange ! However the censors all over the world 
arrested the free thoughts in writing and oratory, and whenever they 
could to force them back! But the time came, as we see in Nietzsche's 
book, when the censors can cease their obliging work! There is nothing 
for them to do! Now they do not know, what to mark blue in a pro- 
gressive writing, and far less they know whether a rooster is singing 
his song loyaly or not on his back-yard fence ! This precautious alarm 
or well selected warning which Nietzsche left us we took with bowed 
head, and we are bound to give it further attention. How shall we sail? 
Probably free, even when darkness surrounds us! 

With such alerted attention, we stay, and listen! Nietzsche never 
cared, what kind of social classification a free spirit had ; but he cared 
very much, how a free spirit composed his thoughts about the many 
infamous actions, which were done to the human race under the masked 
auspices of a system ordained by wealth. Therefore he drew a sharp 
line between the free spirit and the emotional e very-day, loyal vulgar 
one! This point surely belonged to psychology recommended as an un- 
avoidable condition of general existing facts ! For a short change, and 
to remind my readers, I would like to go back to the lady, Miss Mal- 
wilda von Meysenbug, who claimed the knowledge of psychology for 
herself about the revolutionary movement and the characters of it. The 

57 



noted historical individual, who firmly resolved to go forward upon the 
irreconcilable road, regardless what might happen to him, was lured 
in a trap of unhoped-for initiative, where he was forced to a public con- 
fession! Many of such kind became weak, and confessed their sins, but 
they stood before their accusers with stripped honor! The whole fact 
seems a trickily composed curiosity ! Giordano Bruno died at the stake, — 
and he was surely a fearless character! But when we investigate the 
whole proceeding of his intention after 300 years, we find he was con- 
cerning himself about a repentant petition, which he wanted to put be- 
fore the Pope's feet, for no other reason than to receive mercy for his 
personal life ! But his energetic advance was too far ahead of the time, 
and so it ended in the terrible Auto-da-fe of the Inquisition! The case 
of our memorable Emanuel Kant, who publicly took a pompous oath for 
the only reason, his scanty daily existence, is well known. ! These are only 
individual cases of the history. By this untimeous opportunity we can 
look over the 48th revolutionary movement, which was overwhelmed 
with outrageous assassinations, and at last, the rest who slipped the firing 
squad (including the above mentioned lady) had to look for an asylum. 
Garibaldi became a ship's captain, Mazzini a very good friend of the 
king of Italy, the third one saved himself through a suicide, — and the 
great musician Richard Wagner became a lover of princesses, and dared 
to renounce publicly his previous deed of '48! Here we have a long 
line of chosen men, who traveled the road of free spirit, but soon landed 
in the enemy's camp, where they became very loyal servants of our (by 
now!) well known teleological system! I am not averse to any of 
them, because I know the bitter fight, especially: when a free spirit 
acquires matrimony. This last fact, as a conclusion of the previous one, 
reflected strongly in Nietzsche's writing, though he never intended to 
admit it! 

Let us proceed. The Herald's call becomes stronger. What do you 
think my friend: Who is the bound man of daily life? He has only one 
sacred, hidden duty forced upon him, which consists of loyal service to 
the system, namely, to spy upon his surroundings, and find out every- 
thing that he can about people's sacredness as opposition to the system: 
to report it at the right place! In this way, and with a very smiling 
face are trapped the men of different ideas! We should meditate for a 
moment about such an important and extensive warning ! At last, how 
could a thoughtful man of well composed mind ever think, that in such 
a case, where the great but nevertheless subterranean act of espionage 
is carried on from all against all could exist a human Harmony? But 
only now comes the apex of an extraordinarily molded warning : Should 
the free spirit be so careless, that he could not realize this obvious fact 
of that infamous act of espionage, then it might happen on one nicely 
shining morning, that he will meet his bad omen under which he will 
bleed to death! Such a shameless production of unnecessary victims has 
to be stopped, Nietzsche ordered! Furthermore, he said, when the daily 
spy feels that he can not become the ruler of a free spirit, and can not 
otherwise injure and undermine him, then the spy will use the most 
ardent eloquence, and utter falsehoods behind the free spirit, not be- 

58 



cause the spy believes that which he utters : but only for one reason : to 
do damage to the free spirit! Therefore Nietzsche called attention to the 
point that the free spirit should be careful in his daily movements, be- 
cause no matter how he fixes his affairs there will always be some points 
forgotten, which will distinguish him from other people. The free spirit 
even moves differently. On such a remarkable road comes the parting of 
existence! How to get a job? That remains a mystery! As this my- 
stery can not be solved, there must come an unexpected moment for the 
free spirit, where he is bound to subjugate himself to an aimless strolling 
upon the country roads of foreign lands, — as much a vagabond as ever a 
gypsy was! That was Nietzsche's confession, as a sure answer to the 
formidable system, — which never could otherwise maintain its boastful 
rule, than to turn its subjects one against the other! For this statement: 
we have no apology! 

In this we do not care to cheat ourselves. Furthermore, the un- 
conditional view remains: That the academical gentleman, who gained 
their high education for a certain profitable purpose, will play forever 
very foolish deeds to such a Herald's call as Nietzsche uttered! There- 
with we have at hand a very frank and obvious case, over which we 
can argue freely, and truthfully. Upon the well-created foundation of 
the invisible, and ordained act of espionage, the daily spy becomes a 
Christian, and a citizen — no matter in which corner of our globe he is 
located ! Otherwise to mark such a case, — it is only a matter of believing. 
Nevertheless, that becames dangerous for a free spirit, when he is not on 
the alert ! Furthermore it remains self-evident, should the free spirit 
notice the whole proceeding of the secret tricks of the psychology of his 
surroundings then he will have an easy play, but until he reaches this 
important apex, he has to fight so many bitter battles! Wonder if this 
explanatory point about the development of a free spirit is understood? 
And there fore because we are not sure of the whole explanation of the 
case we should arm ourselves with the sharpest knives of psychology, 
and mercilessly cut to pieces everything which crosses our road ! As you 
act toward me, so I will repeat ! There is no way out of it : we have 
to keep constantly the power of resistance for our service, and be ready 
every second for a bitter fight ! In conclusion to this, he wrote on 
pages 211-212: 

"All states and orders of society, professions, matrimony, education, law: 
all these find strength and duration only in the faith which the fettered spirits 
repose in them — that is, in the absence of reasons, or at least in the averting of 
inquiries as to reasons. The restricted spirits do not willingly acknowledge this, 
and feel that it is pudendum. Christianity, however, which was very simple in 
its intellectual ideas, remarked nothing but faith, and passionately repulsed the 
demand for reasons; it pointed to the success of faith: 'You will soon find the 
advantages of faith,' it suggested, 'and through faith shall ye be saved.' " 

This primitiveness of our neighbor's mentality, can only be dis- 
covered when we are well armed with psychology, and watchful in all of 
our steps of the old and effeminate thoughts, which frequently come 
from within, and tempt us into the danger. This hint contains so many 
tricky ideas for a thinker, of wjiich a common revolutionary never has 
an idea! Nevertheless, I have a suggestion: Should this hint ever be 



understood, — then I am sure there will be an obvious shaking of the old 
dust from the customary boots ! This view can not be denied, and there- 
fore it remains true all over our globe. Only now, we see how small 
in reality is our big globe! We know, that in the long course of our 
experience, many and different maliciousness will reach us, but what 
should all these indications mean to us? We will be compelled to move 
on, and forward through the orders of the Higher-up bars of iron! How- 
ever we should not forget, that through such a bitter struggle we will 
learn to honor the real and time meaning of "Hunger is the best cook!'* 
When Nietzsche pointed out in the next article as a case, where such a 
man dies from hunger, then we know the meaning, and right here, we 
want to account for the living of all free spirits! Should that prove 
that we ourselves are entangled in such an awful case, then we can look 
for a solution in the customary proceedings. My dear friends, you say : 
"That is exaggeration!" Very well! But just look on the young tree, 
when it grows, — it grows down too ! Only when we come through such 
terrible experiences can we be ready for a decision of a new culture. 
Self -consciousness becomes then a shining sun; the present a free field, 
upon which we can freely, and laconically dance! When once this view 
is caught then only can we handle our psychological operation, and never 
for a moment flinch with fear about the would-be criminal in us who 
could be punished ! You then become the real prosecuting attorney, and 
only then you know : that you are free spirit ! Nevertheless while we stay 
with our present, well composed acknowledgement, we are prepared 
earnestly for a century long chaos! That is a daring hint for all the 
world's powers, which act hastily and produce such geniuses, who will 
be able to overturn the whole old civilisation! Nietzsche claimed, that 
he talked only to the highest, and the best statesmen! Very well! They 
should be on guard! Whatever has to come will appear! With such a 
stipulation, Nietzsche opened a free field, upon which each individual 
can go as it pleases him: forward or backward! Here we can put a sure 
bet: There will be only a few who will go ahead! Truth in itself 
points out that the man who is well equipped with the sharp knives of 
psychology, has still one main desire or unsatiated thirst, and that is : to 
reach the top most point of literature. "A general!" as Tolstoy said, and 
as we interpret it, to become a real ruler of the centuries' old chaos! 
That is the determined resolution obligatory for the strict duty which 
we call philosophy ! and he who can not see the point of a new culture in 
it, he might as well keep out of the rank and file of the new army ! 

Pardon me, my dear friends! Do you see any point, but more the 
command of such a well instructed general as Friedrich Nietzsche was? 
No! Well, I will start anew! To judge correctly the conclusion of a 
previous chapter, and extend my interpretation, this necessitates: 
Forever in the history an individual always came to the front, grasped 
maliciously the scepter in his hasty hand, and started anew to rule ! This 
fact shows us that the possibility is always open for a well equipped 
individual! The modern armament Nietzsche ordered is psychology! 
Nevertheless, he was witty enough to say that a period can be sub- 
merged with derision ; as for instance : the case of Voltaire ! Napoleon ! 

60 



and we know today that Nitzsche would rule some centuries! Not with 
the power of a War-Lord, but with psychological instruction, which 
would surely undermine the old diplomacy ! Drop today one psychologi- 
cal view, and the strongest states of our globe shake like the young 
branches of a tree ! Just watch the censor's machinery, how it works in- 
dustriously behind each psychological malefactor! But what is the use, 
Nietzsche the greatest of the many malefactors is gone! The work he 
left behind belongs to the whole human race, and the gentlemen who 
still wants to make new states on the old fashion might better be on 
guard ! The whole observation shows us farther, that a period makes its 
own fruit, and Nietzsche pointed it out ! To show that my conclusion 
is founded on reality, I shall quote here two sentences from Herr 
Johannes Schlaf 's book, who is still an obnoxious defender of the tele- 
ological system, and who strongly believes that he can turn the wheels 
of progress backward to the big Egyptian Holy-Book. He remarked well 
on page 144 : 

"In this division comes forth even that glorification of Italian Renaissance, 
which for Nietzsche is so important, and will be, and with which he ruined funda- 
mentally the most modern at home, and in whole Europe. A true evangel of 
Decadence, and of Satans, that Nietzsche disbursted, and whose effect we have 
on our neck!" 

He was very free with his underscoring, and exclamation mark, 
and why should we keep the same mark out of our writing ! The time of 
Laurence Sterne, the great (may be even the greatest!) English psycho- 
logist, whom Fredrich Nietzsche envied for his free writing, and who al- 
ways had to sniff whenever he had to put an exclamation mark is over 
forever! Therefore the writing of our literary friend from the enemy's 
camp comforts, tickles, and even to some extent ravishes us, because of 
the period << with-the-alarm-clock-in-the-hand, ,> which longed for re- 
demption, received a tremendous big mill-stone on its farewell pro- 
ceeding, and is now down at the bottom of the deepest sea, and accord- 
ingly out of our surroundings ! Furthermore, we can confess that even 
here a new acknowledgment came. That can not be argued away, even 
not from our sternest antagonist, who frequently reports the fact. But 
to all these remarks it is better we stay on guard! The account must end 
only in one book: the new culture! Evidence for it is the unspeakable 
rushing of the tide, and falling of the ebb of our enormously progressing 
degeneration ! 

The time is approaching where the degenerates will fight with their 
last life's power, — for their very life before they are forced to go down, 
and out. It might be that with this terrible occasion it will be a fact 
that the most noble character will die ; but this battling period undoubt- 
edly must bring forth its good fruit ! Out of these many, awful, and un- 
happy accidents, there must remain one noble character, who will find the 
saving roads ; and upon it bring his own destiny to a most wonderful 
blossom on account of the monster system ! With such a happy view- 
point, and a well accounted-for, profitable intelligence, we can at last, 
even today, turn delightfully to the social outcasts, and gypsies, and wel- 
come them with heartfelt sincerity as our guests! But dear friends! 
eould you acknowledge that there never was such a point in history at 

61 



least in the educational view-point ; before Nietzsche gave us the psycho- 
logical intelligence? Furthermore, I have to confess: In this homely, 
and hidden hint is still some indication which longs for sunlight! Oh! 
friends, if we could only put on this paper our own understanding of this 
proceeding or our interpretation of it. Nevertheless, to all these posi- 
tiveness of expecting the clash of persecution, one thing remains sure 
for us : From now on we can be still more trustful and positive, that there 
are many secret paths open for us, upon which the real culture-carriers 
can not be so easily caught! Should that be indeed the reality, that 
there is nobody here now who could signify the possibility of our as- 
sertion, then there are some wanderers left, who can signify freshly, this 
unheard-of assertion from their own well tasted experience! But why 
should we talk so much about hidden things at present ; we will have 
more opportunity to talk about them when we investigate the other 
works of Friedrich Nietzsche. At present we have many books on our 
shelves about Nietzsche, but lack the real interpretation of his view- 
point about the new culture ; before anything else, these many critics lack 
the real meaning of Nietzsche's view-point in regard to the management 
of our collective system; i.e., the Human race! Just as we said a while 
ago, we want to leave this remarkably delicate point until we come to 
the other books of Nietzsche. 

Let us proceed. In between such extensive indication, he did not 
forget to talk about a wonderful education. That is a point for us, 
because it belongs here. He meant that this wonderful education would 
be most important especially, when out of it eventually will come un- 
heralded to the front a new God. He meant further, that with such an 
unexpected fact every wonder will disappear, and there will be a myster- 
ious question in the minds of the most thoughtful intellectuals, namely: 
"How then will the inquisitive intellect sail through such a well armed 
society?" Here we may not forget, that with a new God mil come even 
the thousand years' tidly melted, and freshly forged chains of society, 
behind which will hide an irreconcilable tyrrany, — and then the free 
spirits may look with wide open eyes upon the new situation, and investi- 
gate it, and at last find the way out of such a chaos ! Therefore, it should 
be our duty now, to prepare for such a future! Nevertheless, this well 
accounted for warning should serve as an important hint to all time men 
who believe on modern progress, and who work industriously for it: 
without the social education ! It is necessarily important here to remark 
on this point: The greatest intellectuals knew how to nurse their in- 
tellect to the highest degree of the most imposed power, but under an 
extraordinarily, and trickily case they were influenced by hardly ever 
imagined deed! Just think of the pitiful case of a Poe ! Hush! Is there 
anybody here, who knows what became of Rabelias? These obviousness 
we find throughout history! In spite of all our thoughtful experiences, 
we can point out how the modern civilization prepares further, and fur- 
ther, and forever to bring upon the battle-ground stronger, sharper, 
more bitter, and still more irreconcilable, yes, even hardly conquerable 
weapons, which indeed so greatly discourage the individual, that he be- 
comes afraid to think a thought in opposition to the monster system! 

62 



And where should we look for such a pitiful idea? Just look carefully 
on the customary power, and soon you will see how this invincible Might 
works mercilessly forever, yes, even disgustingly against the peaceful 
meditation of an individual! This undescriptive power of custom will 
even go so far with its claim, that it will drive the individual to such an 
extreme degree, where he will rave, or even run mad! Here comes an 
obvious point : The history of public opinion has reached the gate, where- 
on the word "Democracy" is written! In spite of that the tremendous 
power of the modern monster system, namely custom, works outrag- 
eously, unceasingly and strongly against the evolution of the individual, — 
everybody is getting more thirsty for the truth! This shows us 
how the deliverence of the individual becomes an unavoidable necessity! 

This insatiated thirst for the truth in between the high tide of 
degeneration brought to us an incurable disease as a result. In spite of 
such a well known reality, we use no eloquence about our insane asylum ! 
This beguiled, and hidden weed of our modernity, Nietzsche saw clearly 
and therefore, he instantly pointed out the future work of the medicine 
man. That is a very delicate meal for an inquisitive taster, because the 
future man of medicine will not only appropriate his professional science 
for the body but will assume the cause of the modern disease : which re- 
sult from the thoughts! On such a roundabout road Nietzsche reached 
our goal: psychology! That is a distinguished hint for all the fighters 
for freedom, because with it we can prepare ourselves for such deeds with 
which we intend to carry out our private as well as our social life. The 
artful trick of a freedom fighter not only consists in vulgar dishonorabl- 
ness, but in a well composed eloquence of diplomatic art ! Each freedom 
fighter should retain a well marked firmness in the manner in which 
he means to fight. 

Here Nietzsche showed where degeneration ended, and therefore, 
it will be hardly possible to avoid the outcome. There would not be any 
other help for this unspeakable f rightfulness than cold-blooded science, 
which will be able to overcome and deny the antique stipulation: That 
the destiny of man ever can depend on a God ! Therefore, we must again 
wilfully open our eyes which were almost blinded by the customary 
power, so as to fetch the hand of destiny, and bring it with an enthusias- 
tic lust to the frivolity of our beloved Dionysos ! We can equalize this 
point : The progressive man wants to take the full responsibility for his 
own action! That never happened in the history of the organization of 
our well known teleological system! Perhaps our understanding of our 
social proceedings leads us even to fatalism, — nevertheless nobody can 
deny the sweeping degeneration! At last we discover a new acknowl- 
edgment : The legally nursed Doll-Play of the enormous Self -automatism 
must stop! But to avoid a still worse catastrophe, Nietzsche wrote on 
page 229: 

"But just because we are able to face this prospect, we shall per- 
haps be able to avert such an end." 

However it reaches us : The bitter fight must be carried on ! Should 
we despair? Never! With a firmness we must hopefully turn our whole 
attention upon the daily customary movements of our neighbors, — because 

63 



in them we can recognize easily the end of our modern, Money-Aristoc- 
racy's period which intentionally presents the pompous Might; but in 
reality shows tactfully the extensive insolvency! For this compliance, 
we need not go to the halls of our extreme radicals, to find there the 
real significance ! Never ! Instead we will go in security to the most 
honored banker, and politely ask him for his last bank-report : That will 
settle all our mysterious suspicions! As soon as we recognize the real 
facts, we never can avoid seeing how the customary movement be- 
comes more boastful, or even frightful and vulgar, — because the insolvent 
employers cannot as of old demand more glorification of his importance ! 
Who will dare to say that Nietzsche exaggerated is his explanation! 
Just look around yourself carefully, and observe, and investigate the 
momentarily molded awkwardness of our employers, no matter who 
they are, how it turns still doltish; — but at the same time you can see, 
on the other side, the comically pointed finger of your contemporary 
fellow man! The more we take into consideration the antique genu- 
flection of receiving trustworthiness, — the more obvious strong is the 
irony. The LIE has come to a Halt, — and Truth wants to rule the daily 
life ! Do you think, with this, that our condition becomes more mys- 
terious? And then, what would be the salvation for it? Nietzsche 
claimed again: Science! The Self -acknowledged proudly arises its 
head! Therewith meant he, we will become the real explorers, and 
straightway reach the high apex of philosophy, — but never such philos- 
ophy, as criticizes the empty air, but one, which energetically investigates 
the immediate field of our wrecked present, on which field it must find 
its existence, and upon it build the roads, and crosspieces, upon which 
this philosophy can proceed without any fear! With such a conception 
this new explorer, or would-be philosopher, will decline to observe 
nature, but on the other hand he will guard himself so as to oppose it! 
By taking great care he will have better eyes for the different authorities 
of the e vaporizing modernity, — which continually nurses itself upon the 
blood of its subjects ! These are indeed the pearl, which Nietzsche threw 
to us, — which we took with respectful submissiveness. There is no 
cheating. Based upon such a foundation our surroundings will become 
palpably clear. At this point, we can easily forget the old time pliable 
rattan, which used to swing very flexible upon our back by the rotary of 
the little spinning-wheel, so as to impress the f rightfulness of the cor- 
rupt antiquity upon us ! This momentary turning back excites in us 
new curiosity. Here we have two doors open to an important case. 
At this moment we feel sudenly free of all the imaginable crimes, and 
shake our head joyfully about our old fear of the prophecied penalty 
to come after our death. Only through such an unavoidable manifesta- 
tion can the possibility of a human without fear be continued! From 
now on we will have only one acknowledgment left: — Whatever we see 
and feel shall be welcome, and everything else remain upon the by-ways ! 
From now on, we shall not be affected by the shrieking of the so-called 
progresive Sirens! Of this we who are living in the twentieth century 
are surely convinced! Consequently our view-point shall remain sane, 
and open for further investigation in the future. There will be no 
more guess work and less skepticism! 

64 



To better paint for us the coming heaven, Nietzsche introduced 
f'The Mental Tyrants." In this he showed us where gloominess began, 
and how the old Greeks fought bravely against it. Each wanted to 
overthrow the other, and so they all took a triumphant stand. But the 
severity of their insolence rose so high that from it developed tyrannic 
discreation, yes, even malevolence. AH men become tyrants, or at least 
all intended to if possible. That was nothing new with the old Greeks, 
because they had well compelled Mythology at hand, which urged them 
to the high step of God, to the ever praised rank and. file of the starry 
heaven and so to immortality. The bloody figlat became more bitter, 
that at last they all lacked good judgment. At last a law was made 
even against nature ; — for only one purpose : to guard their overstrained 
life's power. Thus led them to meditate upon the organization of a 
philosophical state. Plato considered repeatedly with a fearful sadness 
the impossibility of his organizing this ideal state. The more the failure 
manifested itself, the stronger came the passion abuse ; and gall filled 
their lives. From this developed a bitter contest upon the public streets, 
— where rhetoric became leader. Here their gall changed to poison 
which worked like a true assassin upon the general, and assidous men- 
tality, and consequently, each one was completely ruined, or better say : 
killed! ..That is the way this reaction came to its own triumph. The 
great men like Aeschylus, Pinder, Demosthenes, and others, came too 
late, — just because the best men had already ruined themselves with 
their personal grievances. This immortal battle was so terrible, that 
they all together forgot to leave a right type of their own countenance 
to their posterity. But Nietzsche meant, whoever intends to recreate 
their so-called classic type for monumental recommendation he will have 
to have a great hope for his undertaking and still more for his success ! 
This indescribable period, which concluded with vulgar argumentation 
upon the crowded streets of Athens, became the doctrine of Socrates. 
Rhetoric, at last, triumphed in the politic of the Greek's collectivity. 
Nevertheless, we have to confess that this pitiful period continued even 
to our own time : otherwise we never could perceive the fact. To make 
from this a solicitous hint for the free spirits, Nietzsche ended on page 
243 as follows : 

"Oligarchs are necessary to each other, they are each other's best joy, they 
understand their signs, but each is nevertheless free, he fights and conquers in 
his place and perishes rather than submit." 

That is enough for present deliniation of the classical antiquity. I 
am just wondering, if I may be courageous enough, to bring out here 
Poe's diction on this point in his article, "Ligeia": 

"It was the radiance of an opium-dream — an airy and spirit-lifting vision 
more wildly divine than the fantasies which hovered about the slumbering souls 
of the daughters of Delos. Yet her features were not of that regular mold which 
we have been falsely taught to worship in the classical labors of the heathen." 

The most beautiful thing we see in this book (likewise in Poe's) is 
the continuous fight against the centralized Monster System of teleology, 
which crawled as a glittering, and false swath down through the centuries 
to the present period. In the next article Nietzsche wrote on page 243- 
244: 



"The greatest fact in Greek culture remains this, that Homer became so 
early Hellenic. All mental and human freedom to which the Greeks attained is 
traceable to this fact. At the same time it has actually been fatal to Greek 
culture, for Homer levelled, inasmuch as he centralized, and dissolved and more 
serious instincts of independence. From time to time there arose from the 
depths of Hellenism an opposition to Homer; but he always remained victorious. 
All great mental powers have an oppressing effect as well as a liberating one; 
but it certainly makes a difference whether it is Homer or the Bible or Science 
that tyranises over mankind." 

This inner feeling which Nietzsche tried to hide, and in his book 
veiled publicly by its ^intiquity, — was at that time a fresh-born weak 
offspring which saw the sun light for the first time between the Jura 
mountains in Switzerland. Why should we care even though we know, 
that Nietzsche liked "to pilfer dainties," and always declined to report 
his resources! Just because we are so "forgiving,*' we preserve our 
peace, so as to follow further our hidden feelings, — and treasure the 
hints received! Armed with such a profitable gain we can go into the 
modem school of the greatest thinkers, — even when we are not acade- 
micians ! As such prominent explorers, we nurse an unshaken confidence, 
with which we can easily find out, how the modern thinkers refuse with 
all their life's power to attack this very centralization, which is the 
greatest cancerous affection of all human independence!!! This ju^ 
dicious synopsis makes us very happy! Believeing this we can courag- 
ously await the prolonged bitter fight, which has to come! 

In spite of his excellently summed up eloquence Nietzsche failed to 
give the right expression of his own feeling; as he held himself always 
to the primitive fact of science. His coldbloodedness in investigation 
never ended, — and we wonder many times : — Which way he will ' l sail ? ' ' 
In such a tremendous chaos of ingenious thoughts he dared to bring 
out a true fact, which does us more good than everything else in this life, 
namely: — that people should know how to read books! With this 
hardly acceptable recommendation he foisted-in a new conception for 
people, namely: philology, or — slow reading! This daring reference 
was at that time (and who knows but it is today, too!) an unforgiving 
insult, and simultaneously a-down-coming-from-heaven-wonder, because 
his contemporary friends neither cared to nor could still less understand 
his earnestness! This fact should tickle us, who live in the twentieth 
century even more, when we read on page 250: 

"False conclusions are the rule in older ages; and the mythologies of all 
peoples, their magic and their superstition, their religious cult and their law are 
the inexhaustible sources of proof of this theory." 

Whatever has been already written in this book, and what Nietzsche 
intended to write, and could not (it was not allowed!) so as indirectly 
to avoid the dissensions of his readers through their exposure, we want 
to overlook, because we have a very positive perception of his time, 
and from this we know our own time, is not very much better ! In spite 
of all his acute carefulness, and forcefully deliniated the CYNIC ! ..Could 
we ever accept this without an imemnse feeling of protest mixed simul- 
taneously with joyful happiness ! It is true that his philosophy intended 
to split on the very start with organized society? Could he ever give 
a better warning to the free spirits? What did he wish to say here? 

66 



Nothing more than that the free spirits need only one effort for their 
advancement, and this is the hardening of their bodies and minds! 
Therefore, it would be very good for them to go in the fresh air, giving 
the strongest wind an opportunity to blow them through, and through! 
That was a carefully concealed hint on wandering, but this hint never 
pulled righteously. How would it ever be possible, that those pale and 
striving philosophers would dare to put their lives under the tyranneous 
scepter of the blowing wind? This compromising honor nobody wanted 
to take upon himself. The careful perception of impossibility worked 
backward. The most of them chose the timid home-life, even when it was 
full of despair. With their wisdom-finger upon their thinker's forehead, 
they rather glorified in their homely timidness, any Pan-Nationalism, 
or even Patheism, but they never could decide to wander under the 
scepter of the furious tempest! They consciously surrendered their 
weapons, and surely enough, from this inevitableness came the unavoid- 
able glorification of the central power ! We can easily discover the feeling 
of Nietzsche, when he later on called himself only "good European;" 
that cannot be misunderstood! Hush! Germany's government was the 
last admirer who ever could posses a good "Conscience" for him! He 
did no give a rap for that, and so he answered harshly: that he never 
wanted to acknowledge, any loyal work for the central power! There- 
fore he pointed at the CYNIC, and with this move he deliberately turned 
the water on the mill of the gypsy life ! Nevertheless, however he twisted 
the yarn, we know, that such a deliberate action was called in the old 
times Cynism, and at present REVOLUTIONISM! That is a very harsh 
word, but it gives us the only definition of the independence of a man! 
From this must come a firmness to the man either for or against the 
central power ! The first brings to him a heartfelt complacency, and the 
secondly the outwitted, lonesome, and troublesome outcast. That is an 
obvious fact! In such a manner Nietzsche's result of scientific investi- 
gation worked against the "noble goodness" of the centralized states! 
There is nothing here for doubt ! To put a golden crown on the whole 
chaos, so as to illuminate the enfeebleness of the pale, timid philosophers, 
he wrote on page 258 : 

"It is, perhaps, the advantages of our epoch that bring with them a back- 
ward movement and an occasional undervaluing of the vita contemplative. But 
it must be acknowledged that our time is poor in the matter of great moralists, 
that Pascal, Epictetus, Seneca, and Plutarch are now but little read, thatwork 
and industry — formerly in the following of the great foddes Health — sometimes 
appear to rage lime a disease. Because time to think and traquility in thought 
are lacking, we no longer ponder over different views, but content ourselves with 
hating them. With the enormous acceleration of life mind and eye grow accus- 
tomed to a partial and false sight and judgment, and all people are like travelers 
whose only acquaintance with countries and nations is derived from the railway. 
An independent and cautious attitude of knowledge is looked upon almost as a 
kind of madness; the free spirit is brought into disrepute, chiefly through 
scholars, who miss their thoroughness and ant-like industry in his art or regard- 
ing things and would gladly banish him into one single corner of science, while 
it has the different and higher mission of commanding the battalion rear-guard 
of scientific and learned men from an isolated position, and showing them the 
ways and aims of culture. A song of lamentation such as that which has just 
been sung will probably have its own period, and will cease of its own accord 
on a forcible return of the genious of meditation." 

67 



We never could receive a better hint, explanation, or warning. It 
must follow, that the real active man can only transform himself with 
his thoughts into the action! There is nothing else that he lacks per- 
sonally, except independence! Here we should not deceive ourselves 
for most men are forced indirectly by well organized society to carry-on 
a classified occupation which they can never dodge. From this con- 
clusion obviously comes an unavoidable compromise, therefore each one 
of these ''pale, striving philosophers" guards his official conscience 
carefully so that they may not point their "wisdom-finger" at the central 
power! We could write many books on this conclusiveness. But let us 
proceed out of this chaos, and listen for one moment to what Nietzsche 
had to say on page 259 : 

"All mankind is divided, as it was at all times and still is, into slaves and 
freemen for whoever has not two-thirds of his day for himself is a slave, be he 
otherwise what he likes, statesman, merchant, official, or scholar." 

That is the most remarkable sentence, which we have yet found! 
How was it possible for Nietzsche to write with such astute cleverness? 
How careful he was to end the list with the scholar. On the other hand 
he deliberately forgot to mention the people "down below," because 
they have shown us their desire for the Eight-Hour-Day ! According to 
this view, from "down below" comes the real action against the central 
power. May we rap a little on his own deliberate conscience? From our 
investigation we see a contrast, which hurls Nietzsche's conclusion back, 
because we see that he deliberately avoided the general desire for truth! 
That hectors us like the red cloth does the bull in the bull-fight in an 
Arena. Immediately we desire to confront every great movement of 
the new culture! Our courageous look becomes at once. very intense and 
the unavoidable splitting with the other side must be terrible! When 
we take this fearless stand we make an obvious acknoledgment about 
the WILL for Power! That is what we learned from our beloved and 
affectionate friend, Nietzsche! For this we thank him sincerely! Our 
reverant thankfulness will be the mighty factor to protect us from 
despair throughout the coming dreadful period! From now on our 
trust will avoid false but pretending fighter, who always has sufficient 
excuses for the many lost battles for higher culture! Nothing will be 
too hard for us from now on! The finish of our being on a lonesome 
country road will eventually become a delightful delivery ! Thereby we 
never intend to dream: about the flight to the enemy's camp! We will 
be animated by a new and brisk courage! Forward will remain our 
motto ! » 

These are the Herald's calls which came to us from Nietzsche. His 
commanding firmness was : You have to fight individually I We must 
resolve to fight that way ; our experiences are mighty weapons which so 
command, and from now on to carry out this resolution will be our 
most important task, because we do not know how the situation will 
stand in the near future. We discover in our lives one thing : the mur- 
derous subjugation of our Youth that held sway over our evolution! 
Nevertheless we taught ourselves through our bitter struggle how a 
philosopher must develop! We want to follow this obscure track and 

68 



deliberately wish "Good By-the-By!" to every officially declaimed com- 
placency. We know, from this that we are the true culture carriers! 
Nothing can happen to us other than a secure future to which we travel 
delightfully, and with the frivolity of the dying roses. Our personal 
life assumes its true value, and even rescue the future. And with this 
well composed enthusiasm we want to listen to the last Herald call in 
this division on page 263-4-5 : 

"Forward. — And thus forward upon the path of wisdom, with a firm step 
and good confidence! However you may he situated serve yourself as a source 
of experience! Throw off the displeasure at your nature, forgive yourself your 
own individuality, for in any case you have in yourself a ladder with a hundred 
steps upon which you can mount to knowledge. The age into which with grief 
you feel yourself thrown, thinks you happy because of this good fortune; it calls 
out to you that you shall still have experience which man of later ages will per- 
haps be obliged to forego. Do not despise the fact of having been religious; 
consider fully how you have had a genuine access to art. Can you not, with the 
help of these experiences, follow immense stretches of former humanity with a 
clearer understanding? Is not that ground which sometimes displease you so 
greatly, that ground of clouded thought, precisely the one upon which have 
grown many of the most glorious fruits of older civilization? You must have 
loved religion and art as you loved mother and nurse — otherwise you cannot be 
wise. But you must be able to see beyond them, to outgrow them; if you remain 
under their ban you do not understand them. You must also be familiar with 
history and that cautious play with the balance: 'On the one hand — on the other 
hand.' Go back, treading in the footsteps made by mankind in its great and 
painful journey through the desert of the past, and you will learn most surely 
whither it is that all later humanity never can or may go again. And inasmuch 
as you with all your strength to see in advance how the knots of the future are 
tied, your own life acquires the value of an instrument and means of knowledge. 
It is within your power to see that all you have experienced, trials, errors, faults, 
deceptions, passions, your love and your hope, shall be merged wholly in your 
aim. This aim is to become a necessary chain of culture — links yourself, and 
from this necessity to draw a conclusion as to the necessity in the progress of 
general culture. When your sight has become strong enough to see to the bottom 
of the dark well of your nature and your knowledge, it is possible that in its 
mirror you may also behold the far-away visions of future civilization. Do you 
think that such a life with such an aim is too wearisome, too empty of all that is 
agreeable? Then you have still to learn that no honey is sweeter that that or. 
knowledge, and that the overhanging clouds of trouble must be to you as an 
udder from which you shall draw milk for your refreshment. And only when old 
age approaches will you rightly perceive how you listened to the voice of nature, 
that nature which rules the whole world through pleasure; the same life which 
has its zenith in age has also its zenith in wisdom, in that mild sunshine of a 
constant mental joyfulness; you meet them both, old age and wisdom, upon one 
ridge of life — it was thus intended by Nature. Then it is time, and no cause 
for anger, that the mists of death approach. Toward the light is your last move- 
ment; a joyful cry of knowledge is your last sound." 

IX 

In the sixth division, ' ' Man in Society, ' ' the classification is excellent. 
Under no circumstances could it be better. Everything in this book is 
as well sorted, and arranged, as though so destined, — and yet, just listen 
to Herr Johannes Schlaf 's foaming expression on page 146 : 

"A straight, classical chapter indeed! What form of meditation has science 
induced Nietsche to follow in 'human-all-to-human?' This and other cunning 

69 



trickeries, such as only a Frenchy could develop, I may overlook: but Nietzsche 
dwells less on this trickery, in the utmost shallowness of the problem, the unequal 
depths of which should be taken into consideration today." 

A real German could not write these three sentences better! There- 
fore we have our happiness in them, no matter who we are ! We are by 
this time well acquainted with the powerful steam-tugs of the command- 
ing central power! Just as we are, we want to observe with lovable 
premeditation the two opposing defenders of culture. We have a reason 
for it; because then only can we properly decide for the one or the 
other, — that was ever the manner upon this world, when there were 
difficult problems for solution. No man ever could go ahead on two 
roads! Such was the Herald's call of an old Roman slave: Epictetus. 
In the same manner Nietzsche caled to us, and so we must call to our- 
selves. With such a methodical meditation we love to smirk, and with 
such a wanton smile we must listen here and now to such a man: who 
is indeed more truthful! We confess truth amuses us more. And only 
for one reason: It always creates danger! The forbidden fruit is 
always sweet ; nobody looks a presented nag in his mouth ! The meaning 
of it? Well, with such a laconic remark we catch the thought behind! 
This we learned when we were children: — Power came and we became 
ripe for the earthly life ! With such a remarkable acknowledgment we 
recognized too quickly the crooked By-ways, upon which we were com- 
pelled to become the very sagacious sneaks! Indeed, we are living under 
the glorius stars Juspiter arid Venus, and therefore we should know; 
how to act in our present society, which wants to quell its insatiated 
thirst with persecuted victims! We acknowledge this intelligence as 
magnificent, even appeasing! Therefore the time for a careful investi- 
gation will fly-by like a milky white Albatros. What means that? Noth- 
ing more, and nothing less than:.. We will have plenty of time for our 
necessary reading! i. e., for slow reading, if you please! And as we are 
living in the twentieth century, we will easily forget through our slow 
reading the drooling manifestation of our four-minute men! Hush! 
Even today the silent question rules! Which one? There is reason 
enough to discover it, because nobody dares to answer, and therefore 
we make a big Hallo about other things, to distract from the main issue 
in our society ! Selah ! 

The division's beginning is as follows: "In intercourse with men 
a well-meant dissimulation is often necessary, as if we did not see through 
the motives of their actions." That is very amusing, and with it, our 
lives become to us a lovely darling! Can you swallow that? Did you 
ever meditate about the valuable of such sentence as a warning? Well, 
here it is: — We have to be on guard against the persons whom we meet! 
Furthermore: Only the nearby person can use discretion about our 
personal life! That is a magnificent search-light with which Nietzsche 
illuminated his surroundings! Whoever is covetous enough to throw 
slander on this characteristic remark, and claim different points, might 
as well travel through our many sided slums as they are found all over 
the globe, and there acquaint himself to gain further intelligence. Other- 
wise in the illumination of Nietzsche's expression as to human meeting, 
there remains always the same tactics: Failure rules triumphantly our 

70 



well pretended glorious friendship! That is, even for us, a little too 
sharp, but however a very philosophical deduction. From now on we 
must study a lesson, which may illuminate the whole matter. The sys- 
tem which always intends to keep the UPPER HAND, must drastically 
confuse its SUBJECTS with antagonism, so as to hold its triumphant 
standard upon the foundation of a thousand years' secrecy of power! 
Whaf is the remedy for it? Just to acquire with cunning subtlety the 
utmost patience, and with a brief outlook wait until a sensible perception 
reaches the right kind of ground ! Is that the so much slandered fatality! 
The better for it! Is this too strongly affirmed? Let us see: The same 
remarkable curiosity which Nietzsche grasped with his scientific investi- 
gation about the educated people, we marked around us among the 
uneducated toilers! And this is no wonder, because we know how to 
draw the exact parallel between these two conditions; — Exception be- 
came Regularity! Is that too much? Nietzsche literally accounted for 
a prolonged wandering, but we on the other hand jumped over all the 
hills and valleys, and sailed over all the five seas without ever making a 
mistake in our account ! Was it too dangerous for us as Non-acade- 
micians? Just as it pleases you: "Yes or No!" That depends upon 
how the one or the other man contrives to mold his impressions. Aside 
from everything else we can assert one point : We became, through 
our wandering, well hardened in our body and our mentality! At last 
we became so immune that no kind of weather could damage us! And 
please; what do you think the people said who met us, and our harden- 
ing bones? They never said one word; they were satisfied when we went 
away : our absence was a great relief to them ! 

These are such strongly distorted points that only a few can under- 
stand, yes! probably even some of those few decline to understand! The 
cause for this is that not everybody is willing to live such a life! Most 
men think, with such a life on their back might reduce their value and 
bring curses upon their reputation; and then, a life without that lovely 
clapping upon the shoulder as signified grace, seems to be cause for a 
most real lamentation! There are not a few men, who want to do that, 
and so they continue following the ordained dictation, and surrendered 
their lives to the customary vaunted sweetness (when even with sorrow) 
which acquiescence nailed their souls strongly and rapidly to the ruling 
authorities of the present system. They carried the thousand-years' old 
rattling chains without murmur! and said politely: "After us the 
deluge !" But in between the time all of them declined to show intellect! 
There was nothing else as a daily duty, but their forceful compromise, 
which brought f rightfulness to them! The cause for this was that the 
socially, and officially elevated men declined to be under the small social 
stratum of the densly stupid people in the slums! Therefore our pale, 
striving philosophers looked amorously on the music or sculpture which 
they lowered to their profession! Brisk indication! They wanted 
deliberately to hide the TRUTH with their actions, but still, everybody 
guarded carefully the invisible tempest which threatened a complete 
clean-out! It mattered not if the one wanted to go or not; that was a 
subordinate part! No matter how they calculated, they had to bite on 

71 



the weil-larded bait, which strangled in their gullet, and then they called 
for a Doctor ! There was no satisfaction gained ; — but how could those 
pale, homely, colorless philosophers ever follow Nietzsche's Herald's call? 
The most of them were very sick of primitiveness, and so they threw 
down their weights of opinion as the last decree in the kingdom of 
limited possibility, which actions drove them to the brink of oblivion, 
hardly knowing how they were misused, and indeed investigated'; and 
at last they gave up without protest ! ! ! As soon as they were there, they 
acknowledged they had acted mercilessly toward themselves; but this 
acknowledgment came too late ! At the same time these ' ' well-instructed 
men of official philosophy" discovered the third generation of their lives, 
where the hungry wolves hallooed their heads off before their door, while 
fright paralyzed their once formerly very elastic thoughts! Penance 
pulled, sorrow ransacked, and long maggots of remorse industriously 
chewed their lives and left them in horrible sadness ! And ere these 
gentlemen of official wisdom could brace up, they found themselves upon 
a country road traveling without any aim! Upon this so cleverly built 
foundation, Nietzsche made, in his "Thus spake Zarathustra ' ' the well- 
known article "Shadow." Nevertheless the once true servants of the 
monster system lost their courage for advancement, and danger wanted 
to shake hands with them! They were standing on the brink and knew 
not how to conduct a personal struggle! The recommendation to disre- 
pard precedent became a very hard nut which they could not crack! 
Therewith their lives became to them a very intricate question. But not 
for Nietzsche, because on page 292-3-4 he poured out his personal 

wisdom : 

"Just consider with thyself how different are the feelings, how divided are 
the opinions of even the nearest acquaintances; how even the same opinions in 
thy friend's mind have quite a different aspect and strength from what they 
have in thine own; and how manifold are the occasions which arise for misunder- 
standing and hostile severance. After all this thou wilt say to thyself, 'How 
insecure is the ground upon which all our alliance and friendships rest, how 
liable to cold downpours and bad weather, how lonely is every creature!' When a 
person recognizes this fact, and, in addition, that all opinions and the nature 
and strength of them in his fellowman are ustj as necessary and irresponsible 
as their actions; when his eyes learn to see this internal necessity of opinion, 
owing to the indissoluble interweaving of character, occupation, talent, and 
environment — he will perhaps get rid of the bitterness and sharpness of the 
feeling with which the sage exclaimed, 'Friends, there are no friends!' Much 
rather will he make the confession to himself: Yes, there are friends, but they 
were drawn towards thee by error and deception concerning thy character; and 
they must have learnt to be silent in order to remain thy friends; for such human 
relationships almost always rest on the fact that some few things are never said, 
are never indeed, alluded to; but if these pebbles are set rolling friendship follows 
afterwards and is broken. Are there any who would not be mortally injured if 
they were to learn what their most intimate friends really knew about them? By 
getting a knowledge of ourselves, and by looking upon our nature as a changing 
sphere of opinions and moods, and thereby learning to despise ourselves a little, 
we recover once more our equilibrium with the rest of mankind. It is true that 
we have good reason to despise each of our acquaintances, even the greatest of 
them; but just as good reason to turn this feeling against ourselves. And so 
we will bear with each other, since we bear with ourselves; and perhaps there 
will come to each a happier hour, when he will exclaim: 

" 'Friends, there are really no friends.' " 

"Those cried the expiring old sophist;' 

" 'Foes, there is really no foe' — thus shout I, the incarnate fool." 

72 



In proceeding with our investigation we have to be very careful, 
and never forget our personal aim in the literary investigation of a 
mighty character and his work. We undertook to follow his writing, 
but the more we read the better we discovered his actual living within 
his immediate surroundings, which fact appeased us instead of disturb- 
ing. We feel very happy for this result, and now, that we have read his 
epistle to his contemporary friends, we want kindly to remember the 
place where he wrote such ardent epistle. That place was, as we well 
know, in that beautifully situated Hotel, which was selected by Miss 
Malwilda von Meysenbug, for a certain purpose, which we know, too. 
How he felt there we know, too, from the book of the above mentioned 
lady, whose description corresponds correctly with his magnificent 
characteristic of the friends of free spirits! Therefore we understand 
clearly the tenor of his personal life coupled with, and his sincere liter- 
ary aim. He proclaimed a bitter war ! Against whom ? Well, we know 
already the wrong part in the society of his time. But at the same 
time we are exhilirated by our summing up, and consider our surround- 
ings, where Ave have to vegetate throughout our existence. There is 
no change since Nietzsche's time for a man who sees deeper into the 
social condition officially sustained. Here, I do not accuse or complain, 
because I am not a gossip. I am stating a fact. The sniffing agent of 
the espionage act, who, clothed in the uniform of a friend, is moving 
among us, tries to confuse our mentality for his pre-arranged report! 
We are so far ahead of him as to disturb that disguised gentleman, be- 
cause he shows how ignorant he. is to explore our mentality! We are so 
wide awake about our own personal life, that we are astonished at the 
Nietzsche's "Northpole Expedition" of the friendly, intelligent people 
surrounding him, where he discovers the same fact we did about that 
employed "agent"! Well, to be frank, that investigation of his was 
not so very extraordinary, but the point we wonder about is, that he 
molded these little daily occurrences in a classical language, and pub- 
lished them! That was beyond any expectation, and covers such a gen- 
eral custom with mighty corruption, which signifies the rottenness of 
our system to the topmost #art of its diplomatic existence. Oh ! We 
never were cheap, and this time we have another confession to make: 
The publication of the book "Human — All-Too-Human," after the of- 
ficially arranged festival in Bayreuth, was too much for the artists, and 
as these gentlemen glorified the new established art of German Kultur 
with Mr. Bismark, the greatest artist on the top, this book was put 
under the sharpest knives which were at the hands of the authorities at 
Wilhelm Strasse, Berlin. They tried to do "things" against Nietzsche, 
but he was too far away and too much on a pinnacle, from which he 
could not be brought back! He knew that! Therefore his daring was 
fresh, his frivolity rough, — he did not give a rapp about his job, al- 
though had to perform it! Can we imagine why he wrote so much 
about wanderers, outcasts, gypsies, and proclaimed a bitter war to the 
last drop of his blood? Yes! Everything comes so clearly to the front 
in our present investigation, so we hardly wondering : when the educated 

73 



gentlemen laid his writing aside, and left his future to his own expected 
fatality! 

X. 

Seventh division "Wife and Child" is a very delicate case, which 
we should not underestimate, especially, when we meditate on the brave 
men, who intended to dash upon their present system! Here again we 
have to separate them, and follow each one individually through his 
personal actions so that we may see his real thoughts! When we have 
the individual at the front, we will decline to take into consideration 
his social classification! So Nietzsche took each case of social stability, 
and suited it to the action of an individual, so as to reach the true con- 
clusion of the whole combined system; so we, too, must investigate! 
In the first line, we learn some points about the freedom fighters, and 
their forthcoming, when they accommodated themselves to matrimony. 
What kind of aim had they? Friendship, voluptuousness, or simple 
following of custom? At present we do not care to dig deeper into 
their motives because we know what kind of Nietzsche's writing we are 
investigating. We have a very good knowledge of how matrimony 
at present fails to supply the freedom 's fighter with a friendship ! The 
cause? What signifies the general restlessness? Merely the dense 
ignorance ?Of what? Well, when a man acquires matrimony, and has 
not the aim that gravitation commands, then and there tyrannous sensu- 
ality becomes the real boss! Then "Good by-the-by!" to the patience 
for the reading of philosophical books! That accounts for our fighters 
of freedom, too! 

Whoever longs after freedom in a well organized society, must free 
himself from the fundamental evil! For this reason we too have to 
examine the foundation of the whole system, and investigate it in detail. 
For this very delicate work we must have the sharpest knives for the 
operation, so as to be able to uncover the last point of hidden rule of 
a corrupt system. We saw in the other divisions how Nietzsche in- 
terpreted the actions of the whole art to the last point, and we under- 
stood this proceeding. He did not care to overlook a single point, nor 
to trot ahead blindly! It might be a fact, that the other gentlemen 
were fooled by his actions, but we acknowledge that was not the case 
with Nietzsche! With genuine truthfulness he only wanted to warn 
the freedom fighters of the fundamental part of matrimony! Why did 
he do that? Just because he suffered "Human — all-too-humanly" on 
the languishing point of all the great men! With such conciously senti- 
mental part of his dignity he pointed out the falshehood of the rulers 
and their verification of the true facts of the whole history ! 

The movement for a higher culture showed some bitter battles, 
where in public the firm fuss raged for or contra. The real motives 
of such endless controversy were always deliberately veiled or even 
hidden! But, at the front of this bloody fighting Ave see the individual 
character, who was lacerated by the enemy and bathed in his own blood! 

V4 



Further we see that many a brave man was lost and yet, we are stand- 
ing, — again as individuals before that tremendous big historical falst 
interpretation of authority, and calculating on our decision! We com© 
here to the A. B. C. school of most important teaching :the Sexual Edu- 
cation! In the mean time, just because the credit system juggles with 
the value of life, and tries whenever it can, to conduct all our earthly 
possession, bodily, mentally on a false road, we have to know how to 
decide. Our personal Will must most certainly govern tither in free- 
dom or matrimony!. And why? However we may interpret the desires 
of our personal Will the real accounting comes in the future ! And after 
the experience, we are strong enough to recall to our own mind the big 
unlimited challenge of the social duties, wherein we waste TWO- 
THIRDS of a day! THEN we shudder for we know that disease ruins 
our life! At the time of our visionary recognition we see our own 
future degenerated SHADOW, which is hunch-backed, lame, and crawl- 
ing blindly without an aim and at last dropping faintly ! In this Shadow 
of our own truthful visions, Ave recognize the utmost feebleness, and w© 
realize that such a Shadow can not have power except for an imagined 
freedom ! Armed with such a well founded acknowledgement, we see at 
present a well twisted web stretched out for victims of opportune matrix 
mony! The pitiful conclusion drives us to soberness, and resolution fol- 
lows. While we are meditating negation, custom brittles in its power, 
for the victim of matrimony, — who feels like the man before the gallows, 
who was very ticklish on his neck, but had to allow the rope on it! 
If we persistently decline to recognize the urgent call for the matrimony 
in our classification, we are marked as woman-haters — (in New Zealand 
they prefer a married man for any JOB, and I am talking from ex- 
perience!) — on the other hand, when we accept the situation with false 
politeness : we are surely lost ! Thus we can see how truth is able to find 
the right road without publicly declaimed defenders ! But, whoever 
tries to gainsay truth, he will justly be harder hit by the invisible cruel 
power of the dear lady: TRUTH! 

The truth must be acknowledged: woman, as a being of ordained 
necessity for the propagation of human species is no enemy to no man, 
at least to a free spirit, and according to this fact, woman can not be in 
the road of any human development! Therefore we can not allow any 
slandering of such a thinker as Nietzsche was; at least not from the 
defenders of the Egyptian custom, who try to rule here, and make a 
dummy of every individual ! They might think that they had done away 
with Nietzsche; but never with the psychological truth which he left 
for the use of future generations! Here we make another confession: 
the very old customary gossip, the real ruler of the economical part of 
our opportune matrimony, is indeed very contradicting! That is the 
search-light, which we reach through our carefully considered investi- 
gation, and we know that the resolution for an honest man will be 
cordial! Nevertheless we warn once more our beloved friends of the 
other side : to leave the sincere student at his work. They should never 
try to slander a "woman-hater"! Every WHY has its BECAUSE, and 

75 



when a bad venerial disease undermine our life, we have to take en- 
ergetic precaution against it. Whoever wants to live in lazy compla- 
cency he must sit down in the predistined corner, there to eat the well 
assorted Loyalty, slowly but surely know his ordered nuts, and ac- 
cordingly nurse the long maggots of customary penance, and at last 
to comply with the murderous affliction of daily life, — so as to await 
the promised mercy, salvation, and recommendation to the old man at 
the big door : Who has the KEY to it ! 

In conclusion to this result, I have a short extract from the book 
II :331, of Eduard von Hartmann : 

"No matter where we listen, there we hear the stereotyped complaint of our 
state officials and army officers over backward setting and bad advancement, the. 
compalints of artists and scholars over subjugation through envy and intrigue; 
everywhere the vexation over the unworthy preference of the worthless one. 
Upon hundreds mortification of ambition comes only one satisfaction; the first 
are bitterl yfelt, the second are regarded as long gained toll of justice. The 
general Self-overestimation urges every individual for high demand, and the 
universal, opposing grudge and degradation of income leaves even the righteous 
claim refuse the recognition." 

Those are indeed good indications for those men who imagine they 
may with such actions reach freedom ! Nietzsche could not be impressed 
with such lives! Consequently he turned to the other side; — appealed 
to himself, — which we can see in the following sentence : * ' In the mean- 
time : the raging, suggestive old grumbler and the old bachelor from 
Frankf ort-on-Main, can not bother us ! " As an opposing sentence Henri 
Lichtenberger wrote for us in his book, ''The Gospel of Superman," 
on page 147-8: 

"Mingling freely with the multitude, and even striving to elbow their own 
way through the mob of egotistic appetites, woman is depoetising herself! And 
at the same time, under the pretext of artistic culture, she is losing her nerves — 
especially by the abuse of Wagner's music — and is thus becoming unfitted for her 
natural vocation, which is the bringing of fine children into the world. Europe 
is becoming uglier; it is tending to transform itself into a huge lazar-house or 
hospital. Without severe sorrows, but also without very great joys, an uninter- 
esting multitude of men, equal in their mediocrity and impotence, lead a dejected 
life on this earth without hope and without object." 

Here must follow for us the exact investigation, and the result 
must be obtained according to the conclusions reached. Should our 
choice be complacency : then every fight for freedom stops ! On the 
other hand it must be clear to us, that first, we want completeness of 
thought, and consequently we need every minute of free time! We 
have to comprehend that the present is the tune for the true develop- 
ment of free personalities! Therefore we have to condemn frivoltry 
about every Loyalty! Just because our life need hardening we do not 
care to cheat ourselves! 

When we investigate with such a perspective the whole system, the 
result will show some puzzles, especially, when we come, as a free spirit, 
to look for a wife ! There comes the first puzzle : The mental arma- 
ment is perfect, and the woman is on her guard — Nobody ever will pass 
a meeting with woman disguised! Therefore the meeting with woman 
will be more enigmatical! The scientific investigation will not allow 
one word without an outbreak of opinion! That surely will illuminate 

76 



the free spirit, and the ladies will decline to have him even for amuse- 
ment! Such tactic will surely prove a failure for the gentleman who 
was looking for a wife ! All of his meagerly composed conception about 
" Happy matrimony" will be gone forever! The whole structure of 
matrimonial conceptions crumbled before the free spirit could grasp 
how it ever happened! Then comes one question: "Why is this?" A 
man of scientific investigation will find his answers, and then look freely 
into the future and take a new dose, of course! There will be no exag- 
geration, and everything will be as clear as the sunlight ! 

This final result will not overpower the free spirit for the ways 
and by-ways of a Saint, but he will be far more careful in meeting with 
people, and last but not least : He will be just a little cooler against the 
matrimonial bait! The whole customary power, and all its arrogant, 
challenged Loyalties, will leave him completely in peace! Such an in- 
telligence will elevate him above imminent punishment, and just be- 
cause he is supposed to be fearless, he will be straightforward banished 
by the power of custom, and made outcast! A short while ago he was 
in a certain direction outcast. Now he is completely outcast. Should 
he reach an independent aspect, then he can take apart, piece by piece, 
the whole question which governs the division of "Wife and Child," 
and place it under the sharp knives of psychological operation, and 
work industriously for some time — upon this investigation. 

In no manner am I prejudiced against any group of people who 
have different experiences, whom I found under different nationalities, 
but each of those had some exceedingly curious points, very different 
each from the other, and which could be very easily distinguished. A 
"Slav" as a Type, has a primitive inheritence of the old Greeks. With 
his traditional education, he has something in his mind, that corre- 
sponds more nearly to the true psychology than all the other nations! 
The peculiar melancholy which follows this ' i Slav ' ' Type like a black 
Shadow, is indeed the best proof of my conclusion. This melancholy 
permeates him so strongly that he forgets himself entirely on hearing 
music, and even on seeing sculpture. Although submerged in such a 
difficult position yet he remains brave, and despair is banished from his 
daily life! That is the very point we have been looking for! With 
complimentary trustworthiness he observes and investigates his own 
rough, or absurd feelings so that he may understand his own nature! 
From now on the life's mystery becomes to him more interesting, and 
everything else transitory things and of no concern to him! From this 
indeed curious "Slav" Type develops an especially molded art, i. e., 
meditation, which compels him into solitude as a simple necessity of 
nature! There is no such a thing as "Free-Wil!" and anything he 
does, he does it because forced to! But, what is he meditating so much 
about? There! — that is just another puzzle for all the other Types! 
There can not be any enjoyment, or any other point which corresponds 
with so-called modernity! Well, what is it then, that he is meditating 
about? He is undoubtedly meditating about true friendship, which 
finally results in nothing! This painfully repeated recognition of him- 

77 



self, and the startling reflection of a wife confronts him! Could that 
be understood in the so-called Western Countries? I very much doubt 
it! And this point of his self-enforced meditation is very character- 
istic (and not at all mysterious). We could write a very thick book 
on this curious controversy, but who knows if it would be understood? 
As to my point, I would like to mention few words: You do not talk 
to this "Slav" Type about matrimonial happiness, because he knows 
better than any one the fatality of the propagation of any species. He 
is wrapped up in his meditation, which commands him to observe the 
necessity of eternal life upon this globe, and he knows too: that he 
must be with his wife the creator of life! 

Such thorough Self-Study can not be found in any books, save 
Slavic's and then only in those written by excellent psychologists! It 
is indeed a concentrated cause of the whole and best investigated psy- 
chology! Because this very curious "Slav" Type cannot articulately 
express his conclusions but still is forced to voice them, he compiles in 
his language the most wonderfully molded stories (just look up the 
Slavic's literature!), which we know as — Mythology! Is that saying 
too much? By no means, because we know very well that the Beauty 
of the Greek Mythology blinds even today the eyes and senses of the 
entire human race! On the other hand, there are many nations, that 
are so terribly blinded with this Beauty, that they, too, tell stories, — 
but what a pitiful contrast in purpose! Imitation is an attribute de- 
generacy! Therefore they act as their degeneracy commands them, and 
instead of meditating so as to find for themselves the point of life's 
necessities, they start to amuse each other, and distract from the main 
issue of life's fundamental decree commanding the propagation of a 
right-kind specie, which should correspond with the fatality on our 
globe: which is strongly influenced from the planets Mars and Saturn] 
Intention and recognition are two opposing sides, which clash in a ter- 
rible contest, and whoever mixes up has to clash with the surrounding 
elements: There is sure to be TRAGEDY! No nation knows how to 
handle so wonderfully the Mythological aspect for the present as the 
Slavonic races! The Slav as he exists with his traditional teaching is 
able to understand his surroundings in a roundabout way through Myth- 
ology, and then point out to others the psychological point. His sup- 
position of correct prophesy marks his present! The positive result 
for us is that the cult of genius by this "Slav" Type could not prog- 
ress very well, because the generally recognized God was put character- 
istically by Mythological indication to be endowed with human feeble- 
ness, and so they tore down the genius from his pedestal! Therefore 
we can find this "Slav" Type had quite a different conception of the 
legal God than any other nations! Through such a Self-acknowledge- 
ment as the transformation of Mythological supposition to his own pres- 
ent, he created for himself an invincible melancholy, from which pours 
an endless chaos ! That is the real psychological point we were looking 
for, and which made so much fear among the other nations, that they 
turned from meditation to amusement, and accordingly away from the 

78 



real necessity of life! This obvious fact only Nietzsche dared to in- 
vestigate, and he tried to clarify it through detailed explanation; but 
he had to choose for his writing, as a foundation, the Greek culture! 
That forced him: to write with the fragrance of the rose! But, the 
longer he worked at his very peculiar undertaking of magnificent orna- 
mentation, the more he was forced to accommodate himself to his present, 
and therefore more to write directly, and at last (as it could be ex- 
pected!) he had to take a firm stand against all Mythology! 

To be just in his intellectual investigation Nietzsche was forced to 
bring out the enternal question about "Wife and Child. " Under no 
circumstances, could he leave out or overlook that important point! 
But now comes the most important point for us: How did Nietzsche 
feel, when he was forced to look through such a complicated perspective 
at his present society, where he instantly recognized how woman had 
become degraded to a pitiful being through the ruling power? Yes, he 
was compelled to see still more in that society, namely: that the hus- 
band, too, was harnessed on the same scale and through the same power, 
and further that the custom slandered him for his meager provision 
for his family ! Reason for it : To tear him down from his primitively 
ordained, and true pedestal! What followed? Custom made the sin 
of inheritance the whole cause of slandering ! which should be right here 
and now punished with all the legally provided means ! It made no dif- 
ference to which class a husband belonged! If the man once became 
complicated in the matrimony, then he could calculate, figuratively, how 
he would finish his own battle. against such an alien powerful army of 
custom! Indeed, Nietzsche meant that no man could ever think of such 
a continuous battle without longing for freedom or at least longing to 
establish in his own family the ever-wished-for true friendship. That is 
what he saw in the timely matrimony — and nothing more! Therefore 
he decentralized the centralization of such a strong custom, and ac- 
knowledged each point separately, or opposed it strongly! Whoever 
has eyes, he may see : There is no religion but necessity ! 

When Nietzsche called attention in a previous division to the free 
spirits' actions on meeting with men, so he told here how they will get 
"Wife and Child!" The whole case is clear and obvious. How the one 
or the other man will feel occasionally, is another important point ! 
Therefore he explored the most choked and secret corners of custom, 
and explained the tremendous struggle. "There was no doubt on his 
part ! ' ' He claimed, further, that the eternal beauty of a woman should 
never influence a man of conscious aim ! On the other hand the purpose 
for the sex connection should call for a true understanding of inner 
desires, because all the other points are immaterial and do not need 
any consideration. Therefore a free spirit should not seek amusement 
in a wife, at least to put his thoughts before hand on happiness or com- 
placency, because all these points are very strongly in opposition to 
the free spirit. He is bound by aspects in case of meeting them — when 
it comes to being loved by a woman. Acknowledging this, the free 
spirit gains a broad field, where he should not allow any disturbance 

7» 



in his proceeding of scientific investigation. Firmness will mark his 
future road and he can avoid deliberately all the concentrated power 
of custom ! The point of it is, should he act differently, then the above- 
mentioned power could trick him so that he never could repair the dam- 
age! That is the sincere conclusion of moral condition if you please: 
which needs always and forever a good, true and brave friendship! 

Nietzsche took difficult task into consideration, and looked for such 
a friendship, because it is the inevitable foundation of life. Again, we 
can find this only between people of intelligence, and equal morals, but 
it can never exist between legalized people! Most certainly this regu- 
larity applies to woman, too! Here is light on the experience, and 
Nietzsche is neither the first, nor the last one, who pointed at it, in this 
way. Milton talked of the same thing in "Paradise Regained," hence 
Nietzsche's experience was not the exception but the rule! Each one 
of us, has a risky story at his hand of such a regularity! What is the 
reason that the whole matter of this gossiping power is still veiled in 
mystery like the deluge of Atlantis? Where is the heralded and de- 
claimed intelligence of modern social explorers? From them we learn 
pitiful stories of our young men, who pay first big sums of money for 
their sweethearts' operation, and then to hide the girls' destruction, 
marry them, and boastfully talk about their matrimonial happiness!. 
In spite of such a well calculated intelligence the unavoidable necessity 
of sex connection thronged upon Nietzsche the man, too, but the very 
peculiar question was faced boldly by his intelligence which continued 
plan the manner in which his personal sex connection should be carried 
on! He could not accept the regular form of the legalized opportune 
matrimony, because it was too strongly in the lime-light of social cor- 
ruption. There came to him a new intelligence, showing that the whole 
basis of the sex question should be builded on a foundation of friend- 
ship — otherwise the connection with the opposite sex will prove almost 
an impossibility! 

Nietzsche longed, as a common man longs, for freedom from this 
result in his personal condition. One more question came to him : ' ' can 
he follow or not a careful measurement in the present condition of op- 
portune matrimony?" This question unveiled itself to him only after a 
prolonged investigation in such a manner that he had to put it under 
a doubt. This kind of observation, taking into consideration, conclusion, 
and decision, was indeed the fundamental part of his own self, which 
longed for freedom! Therefore he concluded finally that a man never 
choses two roads in his life as an obligation! Whoever dictates him- 
self to freedom, he needs a road, and time without obstacle: for his free 
progress! That decision strengthened his already well considered con- 
clusion, and he firmly decided that a free spirit must decide to go alone 
through this life, regardless of the movement or the persistent calls of 
nature for sex connection! As foundation for this, he said he did not 
want to have an agent of the customary power around him! Here is no 
doubt, that this opinion was far too advanced for most of the free spirits, 
because the strength of the primitive triumphed over them! This fact 

80 



caused Nietzsche no headache, at least not so much that he had to jerk 
his shoulder! He became through his marvelous inquisitiveness so stub- 
born and ambitious that he had to hold fast to his result until he over- 
powered all the previous saying of the defenders of opportune matri- 
mony. Nietzsche never could be satisfied with the officially declaimed 
decision of the inaugurated law of Ethics! He was a very industrious 
man in inquisitiveness, and he investigated the question until he reached 
the fundamental basis of the social system. 

When we observe carefully the different men, who nursed them- 
selves upon the mental food in Nietzsche's books, we can see, that they 
enjoyed very much the result about the teleological monster system ! But 
his published opinion on "Wife and Child" was too much for all con- 
cerned. They parted, and left him to his own fate! Furthermore, they 
felt no further responsibility toward him, and regarded him as a gloomy 
writer! After this came deliberate silence. Nevertheless, that could not 
touch him, because he himself wanted a conditional proof of the primi- 
tive point of life, and therefore he continued his well selected work of 
inquisitiveness. The work compiled, the time became short. At last 
came the impossible of finding a publisher! But even that did not 
bother him; because he printed what he could pay for printing, and he 
welcomed it with all his joyfulness: and what he could not print: he 
left in his drawer for future purposes, and even advised the free spirits 
to do the same thing over again! This fact kept us, too, on our very 
meager work! And so we are publishing a short sketch of him: as a 
sincere dedication to our brave teacher! What was good for Nietzsche 
could not harm us ! . Through his stubbornness he became more prosaic, 
and therefore more resolute in Ethics. He counted himself a member 
of the human race, and as such he did not want to be an outcast ! — But 
explain our proceeding when we start this writing, so as to talk con- 
sciously on the primitiveness, which we know so well, we want to say: 
Each social proceeding of the human race in its continuous evolution 
requires for its establishment some centuries. This fact became a melan- 
choly case for Nietzsche ; but after longer consideration even this brought 
him consolation! Therefore he declined to serve the present moment 
as it was officially declaimed! He turned like a sneak, and investigated 
the cause of detailed points. Therefore his merciless explanation about 
the customary power, — and just how this power undertook woman's 
control! Therefore we do not wonder at this question: "When woman 
surrenders the power of custom to what can she cling?" That is for us 
an eloquence, with which we catch science upon the road to freedom! 
We are forced to look back into history, where we see the horrible ac- 
tions of the wondrous Oracle which knew always to fight murderously 
against the longings of freedom! Even though centralized custom 
strongly repelled his explanation, yet it came forcfully to the front, and 
flooded the standard opinion of literature! This deep impression no 
earthly power can wipe away. On the other hand, our society was 
forced to read his writings, so as to find the right solution of life's 
questions ! 

81 



This fact is indeed obvious today: all we need now is to look upon 
the big pile of writing, which has been published all over the world for 
and against Nietzsche! But what does that mean? Are these writers 
merely looking for fresh air, or for freedom? Neither! Well, what is 
the point then? Can it be, that the primitiveness of the present, which 
likes always to impress one officially that it represents truth, is nervous 
about the fundamental security of the old Ethics? That is very in- 
teresting and it reminds us of the restless wanderer, who could never 
find a resting place! But how could we wonder at this when we know 
that the endless and tremendous obstacles are only the embodiment of 
the centralized power of custom! The free spirit has no business in the 
present form of our opportune matrimony, — or he must become a corrupt 
cross-spider as all the other leaders of the centralized society! There- 
fore he has to move on forever, so that the steady change always may 
bring him new thoughts ! Even that was, and is still today, too strong, 
because each intellectual longed, and longs yet for social fame : which 
brings POWER and WEALTH! There never was so much cheating of 
the intellectuals as there now is, on this very confusing point, because 
social power and wealth never can represent the individual power of 
thought! Nietzsche saw the big and restless mentality, which always 
followed its own indication in this and forever opposed the centralized 
WILL! His view-point became clear, that primitiveness must be fought 
to the end, so as to become master ! From this already had resulted his 
Antichrist ; and we do not need to wait for his last book to find out what 
he meant with his Antichrist ! In such a roundabout way he finished this 
very interesting division, we really can hope for the next connecting 
explanation ! 



XI. 

The eighth division was composed of "A Glance On the State." That 
is very easy to understand, and therefore we are not surprised at what 
is coming. We breathe freely, and we feel refreshed from the wonder- 
ful air, which indeed looks different — yes, we never could hope for such 
a blue, clear air ! Everything is entirely changed, and every black cloud 
of mistrust is gone forever! In the beginning of the new situation we 
first wonder, then try to understand the marvelous capacity and the 
sharpness of such an intellect, who never cared to hide his thoughts 
under the little shadow of a tallow candle! The Greek culture became 
present: The Mythology absolutely clear! That is the most exquisite 
Beauty in a writing, which we ever could imagine! Now we feel full 
of confidence, and we even do not care to antagonize the opposition to 
Nietzsche's writings! Our dandruff has disappeared, and we feel like 
a fish in slimy water! The whole matter of the primitive power of cus- 
tom become at once a very personal question! Now we know how to 
avoid the officially put up nests! Our WILL to test the power of 
thoughts became the only real purpose of our personal life ! We became 
a sort of Renardt— the fox, and we turned, and acted on our own per- 

82 



sonal decision, without receiving orders from the state or customary- 
power! That became for us an incomparable victory! Even Nietzsche 
jumped over the fence of prohibition, and forget all the values of cen- 
tralized society! With such a colossal jump he ask, on starting for per- 
mission to say (317) : 

"The dogmatic disposition and the intention of working upon the masses 
is at present common to all political parties; on this account they are all obliged 
to hange their principles into great al fresco follies and thus make a show of 
them." 

Here we may overlook the tricks of politeness, because it can help 
us even today! We have the same chaos of politics today, as there has 
always been. No matter how Nietzsche distorted his views, he approached 
a magnificent forest, where he carefully observed the different bugs, to 
whose buzzing he listened. The glory of his conscience demanded peace- 
ful meditation about a higher culture, and therefore we are going to do 
the same thing over ! What kind of a comparison do you think he made 
there? He compared the state with a very small border where the man 
moves around headless! That was too much for the step-children! Is 
this indication clear? No! Very well! The human race is divided into 
two very combatant war camps ! The point ? A new tragedy is inevita- 
ble! We are now wondering on what a proposition Nietzsche found 
such a view-point? But on the other hand we know that he started to 
write this very book with such a modification! Furthermore, with the 
parting of Wagner's friendship his thoughts became still sharper, and 
who knows, perhaps, harsher, too ! He saw only free spirits, to whom 
he dedicated his book, but at the same time he acknowledged the neces- 
sity of warning them, and so he wrote only for them! There will be a 
sure change in the evolutionary movements when that point is fully 
understood ! 

So long Nietzsche lived, nobody dared to approach him, therefore the 
critic could not come, and in that silence he remained alone ! As soon as 
he disappeared some writers dared to put Nietzsche's opinions under a 
perspective. But free spirits to whom he really talked, did not report! 
Some writers tried to defend their social position against Nietzsche's 
opinion, but failed to reach the mark. When Herr Johannes Schlaf, 
another defender of the teleological system, wrote at the end of this 
division, "How tragical! How tragical!" we better understand how 
Nietzsche's written influence became a new tragedy indeed. No matter 
how the future officials of the teleological system saw the new tragedy, 
they still gnashed their teeth, and denied most artistically such a thing 
as new tragedy. They worked marvelously before the multitude, so as 
to hide the inevitable rupture, and the tremendous clash of all the exist- 
ing governments! Nietzsche's point in this regard was to call the atten- 
tion of the free spirits to this perverted conscience, and they should 
regulate their sleepy belief with a strong preparation for a very hard 
battle! The reason being the centralized society still expects from 
educated men the fundamental support, — and woe to him who dares to 
come with sharp criticism against the rulers! This is no exaggeration, 

83 



because we need only to turn some leaves in the book of Herr Johannes 

Schlaf , and read how he handled our beloved Nietzsche : 

"When Bebel would give us such things for our amusement, we would let 
it go, but in Nietzsche's mouth it is hardly believable!" 

That is enough for us, because we can see that the central Might 
knows how to arrange its pillars for the support of the impressive system : 
Might is Right ! But Nietzsche knew this point, too, therefore he wanted 
to indemnify himself against it, and declined publicly to be a supporter 
of centralization, or a loyal servant of a state! That point is obvious 
enough for us, to see plainly why he wrote for the free spirits, and not 
for the servants of the state ! He knew only too well how to throw away 
his primitive thoughts of state, — and believe me : Only in such an emer- 
gency, he could go into a beautiful forest where he indeed breathed 
freely! That was the primitive view-point of our already introduced 
lofty boy, Dionysos, who wanted to live his own life freely and without 
any interruption from a central power ! Nietzsche had not here changed 
a point from his first book, and we are wondering how it was possible 
that such a well educated man as Herr Johannes Schlaf changed his 
view-point about Nietzsche when he wrote in the beginning of his book, 
page 17 : 

"Nietzsche did not cheat himself, whatever he intended to write down. He 
put the whole state with all its designation against the determination of the 
individuality, which must subjugate itself without murmur 'to the sharpest knives 
of operation of Patria Amo's honor:' — 'either something dishonorable or a sign of 
being behind the times!' (The half sentence after the colon was taken from 
Nietzsche's article 442 on page 320-2, which reads in its full compilation: 'At 
present, when quite other and higher tasks are assigned than patria and honor, 
the rough patriotism is either something dishonorable or a sign of being behind 
the times!')" 

With such an utterance Nietzsche washed his hands of patriotism, 
and when anyone claims, even today, that he intended to elevate the pol- 
itics of the German's state, he is very much mistaken, and such a 
claimant does not know how to understand what he reads! The funda- 
mental part of Nietzsche 's intention and the point made in his writing are 
very obvious, because he never wanted to be more or less than a human 
being, who is " human — all too human." That was the title of his book, 
and it signifies everything necessary in a literary explanation. As such 
a simple man he wanted stubbornly to preserve his unimpeachable Indi- 
viduality ! This assertion is only ordained for courageous men who want 
to be free right now, regardless of all the officially existing obstacles! 
From such an indicated and well meant explanation, we, the self-chosen 
and rightful heirs of Nietzsche's doctrine, received a magnificent hint, 
which we understood positively! Furthermore, we knew, likewise, that 
Nietzsche never was so foolish as to rush madly into the state nets or 
the penitentiary ! He was far from being a fatalist, and not so malicious 
as to believe in the crown of a martyr! Once more we want to repeat: 
"What was good for him, cannot be wrong for us!" Therefore we feel 
very joyful when we read, on page 321 : 

"Our social order will slowly melt away, as all former orders have done, as 
soon as the sun of new opinions has shone upon mankind with a new glow. We 

84 



can only wish this melting away in the hope thereof, and we are only reasonably 
entitled to hope when we believe that we and our equals have more strength in 
heart and head than the representative of the existing state of things. As a 
rule, therefore, this hope will be a prsumption, an over-estimation." 

That is not exaggerated, or at least not underestimated. He knew 
how to find the right expression for his thoughts, and he greeted the 
struggle as the means for his purpose, which had its working and its 
wintry time ! Amid such a preparation for a wintry recreation, Nietzsche 
turned a magnificent search-light upon that well known head-artist of 
state affairs — Chancellor Von Bismarck! With this energetic examina- 
tion of this much declaimed statesman, he wanted to prove the well 
conscious disregard of the state, and he corroborated this point with the 
Might of the state, but never with the Right of suffering humanity ! Then 
he burst out, on page 323: 

"Socialism acquires a right only if war seems to have taken place between 
the two powers, the representatives of the old and the new, when however, a 
wise calculation of the greatest possible preservation and advantageousness to 
both sides gives rise to a desire for a treaty. Without treaty no right. So far, 
however, there is neither war nor treaty on the ground in question therefore no 
rights, no 'ought.' " 

This is obvious, and the men of the changeable thoughts, who still 
glorify the road of the politicians, may take a good dose of it for their 
incurable mental disease ! It is very easy to notice what Nietzsche meant : 
The war should follow against the state, and not between the states, 
because the subjects of the state want freedom, and can reach it only 
on the above mentioned proposition ! How could we underestimate this 
point? From it we can teach ourselves: what the state is, and what 
Humanity means for us ! Oh ! believe me, my friends, he knew too well 
his lesson in psychology, and we have no cause to question his sincere 
warning to the free spirits ! He warned them only about further non- 
sense in dealing with the state, and thus avoid the merciless persecution ! 
With such a well directed hint he wanted to give a new aim, and with 
this goal a new tactic in warfare to his friends : the combatants of free- 
dom! There is no doubt, because we sniffed the fragrance in the last 
war, which never seems to end ! At last, should this colossal uplift hap- 
pen against the state, then we would reach an evolution greater than we 
have even imagined ! But once more human blood flowed in a big stream ! 
Just think, what Nietzsche intended to say! Or is there any misunder- 
standing of his writing? When Joseph, the brother of the great Napo- 
leon, knew at that time, "Only a fool remains in his falsified condition. 
In my forty years of life I learned almost nothing' but what I knew on 
the starting of it, namely, everything is vanity, except a good conscience 
and self-respect" (a letter to Napoleon from 2.19, 1809) ; then why should 
not Nietzsche know the point he was striving for? In the tactics of the 
struggle of humanity against the state, Nietzsche put a heavy weight into 
the state-scale, and only for one reason, — the indescribable dishonesty of 
the state against the individual whom it uses up as scape-goat! At the 
same time he illuminated the money-man as the real representative of the 
state, and again for only one reason: Because this modern aristocrat 
uses the most publicity for his private purposes against Humanity! It 

85 



is clearly to be seen that this money-man has always the party and the 

state-power behind himself; so as to fight through the most bitter war 

against Humanity? This view was never acknowledged by the modern 

reformers, even though some of them were radicals ! These gentlemen of 

the pretended opposing party always denied such assertions, and as such 

they did not want to come into the lime-light of suspicion ! That was the 

real cause why they left Nietzsche's warning on the side-track, went 

boastfully ahead, and declined the ornamentation of his writing for their 

purpose! That was even the fundamental cause of their endless and 

deliberate blindness, so as not to be forced to see the roughness or the 

dishonesty in the best propagated press! The energetic attack is made 

obvious, and the aim of the state made very clear. Just look up, on page 

325, for consolation : 

"To draw such a distinction between Government and people as if two 
separate spheres of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and lower, nego- 
tiated and came to terms with each other, is a remnant of transmitted political 
sentiment, which still accurately represents the historic establishment of the 
condition of power in most States." 

To make his point still better and clearer, Nietzsche pointed out the 
deliberation of the state political body proposed always the greatest 
interest for the neighboring state, in order to spy around the people's 
conscience, and confessions, to poke fun at them, and just as it is oppor- 
tune, to elevate toward Heaven, or to calumniate them, — but fundamen- 
tally the whole proceeding serves the purpose of the government, and its 
power. Nietzsche was not a fool. He knew too well who rocks the mul- 
titude of any state, therefore he wrote for free spirits, as a warning 
against any political conflagration! Can you imagine the point? No! 
Well, what do you think Victor Hugo meant when he pointed to the 
gallows as a means of discovering an honest man? Another puzzle! 
Well, let us proceed : With such a well denned illusion of their constitu- 
tional tactics nations sprung up, claimed the right to pillage, declaimed 
their "honesty," but the human part was forgotten entirely! Nobody 
wanted to take that peculiar point upon his own responsibility in 
Nietzsche's time, and so stands the point today! Most of the gentlemen 
of officialdom thought over first to be a human man, because it 
sounded too cynical; besides the lonesome loafing upon the road of an 
exile was so horribly near, which fright served the well supplied fruit 
for the state ! That was too much for Nietzsche 's contemporary friends, 
but he added : A man is changed in a second to a strolling gypsy, — and 
this fright again found a too happy home-sweet-home in the gentlemen's 
most silent thoughts, which were guarded with their whole life's power 
before escape, — and most certainly the case applied still more to the 
academicians, because they knew how hard it was to find a well prepared 
artistic home in a foreign land; and so this lovely world of ours seemed 
to them ash-colored! That is not surprising to us, as we know that the 
academicians acted very modestly toward Nietzsche. On the other hand, 
we were in some way "fearless," if you please, and we "run out" into 
the world to satisfy and pacify our curiosity in this line! No matter 
why and how we went, we are sure of what we found all over the globe : 

86 



There we saw, in many corners, the brave men of old times battles, who 
nursed their scanty existence with the most common labor, and in their 
free times they cracked the hardest nuts of their destiny, and at last 
they took few kernels of the best smelling quality of incense and put 
it on nicely reddened charcoal, and glorified their present ruling power ! 

What Nietzsche intended to reach in every line of life with his many 
abrupt jumps is clear to us: he undoubtedly wanted fresh air, and a 
clearance of primitive perceptions, so as to reach on such a roundabout 
road his own honorable individuality! The statesman, the prince, the 
God were to him too complicated with a covering of rough primitive 
falsehood; but on the other hand he did not care to mingle with the 
Rebels, because -they were too much of the slums crowd! Therefore he 
often became real angry, and turned abruptly against the "Romantic 
School" and hallooed: "Ecrasez infame"! That is easy to understand, 
because we know his resources, — but we know, too, that Voltaire was 
sleeping in the Bastille! No matter what we find in the proceeding of 
our investigation, we pass by such an indicated point, or at least we want 
to scratch our dandrufless head and ask : ' ' Who was the instigator of the 
great French revolution?" No doubt : That revolution had to come, even 
as many others will follow ! Here we may even prophesy that there will 
come such a great revolution that the official investigators may grow 
white-haired wondering who were the instigators of it: — but they will 
be forced through mysterious hands to signify the impossibility of the 
modern arranged states ! Parallel with this prophecy and the historical 
facts, we must have at our hands, a positive result : Napoleon could never 
have shown himself great without the great revolution ! ! ! And last but 
not least, our beloved Nietzsche never could have come so drastically 
sharp and secure without the influence of Voltaire and Napoleon! Our 
opinions are greatly confused, and we never would point that way if we 
would not be sure about the endless, great, and well hidden Might of 
Rome, which always wanted to banish all human longings for higher 
culture ! What remains, then, to be wondered at ? Somebody, somehow, 
somewhere, had to start the wheel of Evolution! The state stagnation, 
as an obstacle of human evolution, had to stop once upon a time! In 
spite of the historical facts, the epidemical episodes are still very fresh 
in our memories and not easily forgotten. Only with this characteristic 
stipulation the air of the primitive forceful conceptions becomes clarified ! 
This fact became plain to us; our enlightenment results; we can see, or 
must see, the further development of our present chaos! The wonder- 
fully written word in poesy and prosa of Nietzsche, which lashed with 
the utmost sharpness the have-to-go monster system made us feel very 
confident, and so his books became a great necessity for us! We lived 
our daily life following his well indicated directions, — and progressed 
excellently ! This acknowledgment sustained our trust from year to year, 
and at last we discovered something that we never had imagined : Neither 
Schopenhauer nor Nietzsche could be brought before the Court of Jus- 
tice! Yet, their books are broadcast in all our libraries — even for the 
social outcasts! This not-to-be-denied fact we always honored because 

87 



we knew that individuals all over our globe built up the power of 
thoughts ; in the meantime the rough fury of the statesman slept securely, 
and so thirsted for its victims, — but at last it grew fainter and cannot 
now recover from its terrible £ ' FLU ' ' ! The circumferential hushing of 
the multitude while waiting of the explained power of thought was more 
certain than the result of a carefully written book itself! What is the 
point? The statesmen of darkest Russia (if you please) thought it over- 
first before they transported a philosopher like Tolstoy to Siberia because 
of the edict of the legally administered command ! Each time they were 
ready for the exiling of the old philosopher they had to stop and ask 
their own crafty conscience: "But, what will the world say to our ac- 
tions?" These shrewd statesmen of darkest Russia, who had the most 
free privileges for investigating their subjects, at once acknowledged 
that they could not handle every subject alike! The same case applied 
in other states; the modern philosophers with their emphatic opinions 
opened a new road for the individual; he received his right of action! 
Not entirely free action, but the writings of the modern philosophers 
became a positive fact in the exposition of psychology, which received a 
hearing, was acknowledged and respected by the authorities of modern 
states! Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the power of custom is 
in preponderance, we are not mad over this tremendous movement 
against our general custom, because we know the human weakness has 
always been used for a profitable prejudice. Just because we know that. 
we are reviewing the writings which explore the feebleness of our con- 
temporary friends. When we read today in an editorial of our big news- 
paper, "What good does it do to tell your most intimate secrets? If you 
enjoy the respect and confidence of others, keep them relying on you by 
living up to the standard they have shown they think you represent," 
then we again take a stand against the weakness of our most educated 
men. This is a real point, which we have to clear up in order to under- 
stand the customs or habits which undermine our collective life. There- 
fore such philosophers as Tolstoy, Nietzsche, and others, came to the 
front. There are still some states which destroy every road open for 
the development of philosophers, but even these states must acknowledge 
the existence of a philosopher, and that is very encouraging. Nietzsche 
was, and is still, a well marked target for the politicians, nevertheless 
he knew how to preserve his individuality as a good seed for the future! 

His writings are obtainable and they speak forcibly to those men 
who long for the power of expressing thoughts. Are we, therefore, 
happy? Yes, and we even emphasize the answer! And when Nietzsche 
gave his views of the state, cannot we keep them in our perspective? 
We are patient, and listen : He pointed out why the state must keep the 
church institution in legal order. He meant that the state' man inherits 
the necessity of governing ecclesiastical institutions, because every states- 
man knows that there is no better institution than the church for prepar- 
ing good medicine for hush-work ! Right here he pointed out the truth 
that the great Napoleon also knew that he could do nothing "legiti- 

88 



mately" without the help of the church! Here, again, he said, the move- 
ment of the free spirits became its fundamental base! 

Let us look for a moment into history. Voltaire, and even his great 
admirers, "The Jacobins,' ' knew that point, too; but the custom of burn- 
ing the best written books must be slowly but surely wiped out! Evo- 
lution takes more time than an absurd proclamation of a world-wide 
war! And only evolution, if you please, will be able to clarify the cause 
of such an abrupt declaration of war! Now that we are just a little 
more frank with our opinion in our interpretation of Nietzsche 's writing, 
we dare to claim that the customary preponderance of democratic meas- 
ures gained a tremendous victory, namely, the modern movement of the 
democratic statesmen went so far as to glorify the church-institution as 
the people's WILL, and even declaimed legally as a private matter! Just 
let us look behind this great victory : It is a fact, it works most orderly, 
but we see how the different sects throw their principles higher and 
higher, still declaiming strongly to be the carriers of democratic princi- 
ples, but only for one reason: to grasp as quickly as possible the power 
of politics in their hands; then woe to him who dares to say one word 
against such a custom or rule ! ! ! We understand Nietzsche perfectly, and 
we regard his statements with interest, because we can see from them 
how the political case of a state always squirms itself more strongly into 
the metaphysical atmosphere, — which always emanates from Rome ! The 
most interesting point in the whole proceeding is: That even the most 
modern political movement uses the same tactics for gaining the power 
of state! Shall we turn at this point and talk about a well arranged 
Devil's dance? We have no such an Idee ! On the other hand, we know 
that so long as a tricky intention hidden behind the curtain, just so long 
the conscious individuality has to keep quiet, and wait patiently for a 
riper time! We do not need to shake the tree: The fruit falls when it 
is ripe,— that is evolution : if you please ! Nietzsche called the attention 
of the free spirits to the fact that they should be on their guard, and not 
wastefully throw away their conquered power of thoughts to a pernicious 
custom which wanted to renew the old ruling! Here he then deliberated 
a moment, and thought out, figuratively, that his expression was too pon- 
derous for the contemporary intelligence, and for to avoid a complete 
rupture he jumped to the next elevation like the joyful Dionysos,— which 
trick we interpret into a plain language : In his book he was strolling 
once more upon the road of exile! We know too well his purpose ! His 
explanation showed us that, and it will teach us (forever) how far the 
customary power of a state can go against a conscious individuality! 
There is nothing to be misunderstood! While the whole case of political 
control is tragical, yet we have no power at present to resist it! We 
understand why Tolstoy became a non-resistant philosopher. In spite 
of the incontrovertible evidence of the historical deeds, as well as our 
present facts, we cannot go back to Rabelais' time, and therefore we must 
go ahead! We need this for the psychology of our present lives, and so 
needs the whole human race! We must go on the traveled road, and ac- 
knowledge the value of a philosopher, no matter where he lived, or in 



89 



what a language he wrote his view-points ! As psychologists we must go 
ahead, and concede the psychological facts! Why? For the necessity 
of the human race ! Should it prove to us that we cannot build up our 
existence with our eloquence, well and good, we will go ahead, even 
though we have to live through frightful tragedy ! Can we dare to write 
a point? Happy the man who can feel joyful as an outcast between the 
outcasts! This saying of ours, haunted Nietzsche's thoughts too many 
times, but: The necessary firmness came to him to enable him to live on 
an unavoidable road! That is the road of an outcast! He wrote very 
much about the wanderers, whom he liked very much in his imagination, 
but never as a naked reality ! Oh ! friends ! how well we can see all these 
points in his writing ! At last, dear friends, the lonesomeness is tragical 
yes, — because the man is there forced to live on herbs ! ! ! That point we 
should not overlook; we should always keep our eyes open when we ap- 
proach such a situation, still more be on our guard when we see the many 
individuals who live an "independent" life! 

The great vision that gave Nietzsche so much material from which 
to write on state affairs made him very restless on a beautiful morning; 
he even became angry, and at last he hallooed: "So little of a state 
as possivle!" Should we wonder at this? Not at all! But when we 
follow his recollections of the wanderer's conceptions, where he lay ex- 
hausted on a lonesome road, and momentarily perceived in himself a 
feeling of horrible vandalism, we ask: "From where could he perceive 
such a feeling?" The short article, "War Indispensable" (349), makes 
us aghast. Should a war against the state be an unavoidable enjoyment? 
That even amuses us ! The new tragedy becomes delightful ! It compels 
meditation, and in a moment we see a new star. Society cannot recon- 
struct itself until after a complete destruction harassing conditions ! The 
higher culture can begin its work when state is gone! That gives us 
enlightenment and hope for to reach the aim: No State! We have no 
doubt of this, because upon the long road of eternity everything is 
possible ! 



XII. 

The ninth division was called: "Man Alone by Himself." What 
a wonderful arrangement of thoughts in compiling a book ! Here we re- 
member momentarily the book, "Ego and His Own," by Max Stirner. 
Equally to his book, only in different form and detail, Nietzsche cleared 
away theoretically the fearful obstacles against the progress of psycho- 
logical as well as biological investigation. Only the individual man re- 
mained to take a responsible action ! Here he stands alone, aghast, almost 
petrified! "Which way?" he asks. "Ahead, or back?" As an individ- 
ual, the man has to decide for himself the future road upon which he 
has to travel! Nietzsche never became tired of this opinion! No matter 
how the representatives of the teleological system mixed together the 
different opinions in order to claim these important points for themselves, 

90 



he abruptly changed his opinion concerning the system's maxims, and 
claimed : That a man in his short life can investigate nothing righteously 
until he has full knowledge of himself! Then followed another require- 
ment : That the man needs enormous time to spend in industrial work, if 
he ever wishes to investigate freely the difficulty of an old and outlived 
system. Therefore, the man who longs for true investigation may not 
lay down and rest in lazy complacency. The devotion to simple necessi- 
ties of life and the aimless social calls which usually rob one of two- 
thirds of a day, must be put then under proper perspective, so as to 
catch the right clearance for himself. The last stand is not of much 
account, and the first two points preponderated in his view-point. He 
did not force himself to this conclusion, and therefore his proceeding 
became an easy matter! When we investigate carefully the firmness of 
his tactic, and compare our social classification to his, then we ask only 
one question : ' ' What could frighten us in the face of such firmness, and 
tactics?" His fearless enlistment in the difficult and prolonged investi- 
gation of these problems was accounted for only to few men, whom he 
called free spirits. Who will now dare to be one of them? It was one 
and the same thing to him who the man was, but he knew the difficult 
tasks through which every man has to go to reach his aim ! Further- 
more, he knew how the human race always depended on an individual 
thinker! This point should never be neglected by men who seek a new 
system ! The following very interesting point is obvious : The big per- 
formance of crooked and secret diplomacy can easily be accounted for, 
with the preponderant mass of people, but in the first line the account 
comes to the self-armed, iron-willed individuals, who were pushed ahead 
into such a dangerous position, where they could be easily crushed with- 
out a big scandal! Here we must remember as a historical fact that the 
whole history runs passionately with murderous tools behind the indi- 
viduals — and yet, the long road of that murderous hunting remained 
full of gallows, stakes, penitentiaries, and other many signs of fright- 
fulness ! 

From this must be seen the fundamental fact of the education 
through the state. This education must have unavoidably used as a 
base for the education of the population in groups; these, again, should 
be inflamed with manifold pamphlets and simply written books ; but only 
in accordance with the command of the statesman who frequently pro- 
hibits the freedom to the individual in a direct way, endeavoring to 
keep back the effort to gain the high step of knowledge of one's self! 
The population became party and nation's defenders only through such 
diplomatic tricks ; but never independent man ! Nietzsche meant to show 
that as the cause of our indescribable failure to attain a great person- 
ality! The population were forced with power and command from a 
party or government to speechless order, and when the right time came 
in the well prepared and deliberate purposes of the state, the masses 
were inflamed for hallowing: " Hurrah!" In the meantime, should it 
happen that some individuals jumped the prohibited fence, then the gov- 
ernment, which felt threatened in its ruling part, knew how to take the 

91 



utmost means, and without any mercy to calumniate the malefactors, and 
when necessary even put them out of the way! The history is full of 
such cases. The cases of Spinoza and Giordano Bruno are only too good 
proofs, which bear passing mention. But the most beautiful, renowned 
and wonderful part had to come: After many centuries some individ- 
uals awakened to these outrageous facts took courage, gathered together 
the writings of men driven to Martyrdom, and published them! Nietzsche, 
who made the most careful investigation in this very peculiar line, 
thought and acted equally; and we can see from his actions the neces- 
sity of methodical self-teaching, which never was too much work for 
liim! Yes, he was even far more noble in this regard. He thought, and 
said, that no sacrifice was too much for the enormous work of Sell-teach- 
ing! The point caused his " Human-All-Too-Human" feeling for the 
eternally unfortunate individuals for whom he wrote his books: namely, 
the free spirits! He never questioned to himself whether or not the men 
would travel the recommended road, but he struggled to write down, so 
far as he was conscious of it, and so far as he was able to write, his 
own conclusions! He did it only from human interest, — even when he 
should fall as victim! He had a good vision of the danger, but he still 
remained fearless! The main point for him in his exposition of so many 
complicated problems was to bring the truth to the front, even though 
he should be a marked man from it ! 

Today, forty years after the first publishing of his book, we find 
many answers to it, which make us joyful ! These answers talk both for 
and contra, but fundamentally, in no one writing can be found the real 
view-point of the free individual, who should be energetically willing to 
take a stand against the state! It is far more a crime when modern 
writers claim atrociously that Nietzsche founded Prussianism ! He wanted 
only the conscious individual, and nothing more ! Before an E. A. Poe he 
bowed, but not before a Bismarck ! Every point in his writings showed 
obviously the fact that Germany 's constitutional politicians were the last 
who would dare to explore or establish his doctrine in Germany! (Yes, 
Herr Johannes Schlaf deliberately forgot this division in his book. Why 
did he do that ? Undoubtedly he was most afraid of a terrible lashing ! 
In the division, "A Glance on State," he slipped at once to Volume III, 
page 51 in the next division, " Wanderer and His Shadow," and says: 
' 'It makes us here and there for a while read.") 

We read many books on Nietzsche, and instead of becoming antag- 
onistic we become generous, or even non-resistant. A lady critic of 
Nietzsche received from us, long ago, 200 pages of the most polite criti- 
cism. We had once been friends, but at once were cast out from the 
"intellectuality" for our view-points of the near-by things; we lacked 
metaphysics in politics! Such was our instruction from our beloved mas- 
ter : we were to read the individual sentence, and not swallow the whole 
book at once! When we find in Herr Johannes Schlaf \s book the fol- 
lowing sentence: "In individual points Nietzsche's explanations are 
correct; in the whole they are not durable, even sometimes impossible, 
and often direct, pitiable dilettantic, " we feel indeed poetic, and we ask 



ourselves: "But for heaven's sake, is it not pitiable, dilettantic when he 
writes: 'The doctrine of the freedom of the Will is an invention of the 
ruling classes'?" 

We, who make this detail investigation years after, regard such 
writing as the best ordained composition, because we are sure at last of 
his worthless position as protector of the kingdom and ROME, and con- 
sequently we are able to draw the right conclusion of our opposing gen- 
tlemen critics' investigation we feel amiable when we see daily descrip- 
tion of magnificent murder stories about Nietzsche ! All these deliberate 
ascribings of the critics on a "gloomy" philosopher, as they say, make us 
frivolously cheerful, because we ask ourselves: "Why such endless criti- 
cism on such a gloomy philosophy 1 ?" Very well, we know that the real 
freedom-fighters were forever deliberately concealed, calumniated, and as 
ever before sentenced to death! This is no mere joke, because we see 
therein a mischievous Dilettantismus, in which we discover consequently 
the vigilant party-defence of the old monster system! From now on we 
must carefully connect the individual books in modern literature which 
are recommended as artful, so as to be able to compose a new opinion, — 
because our social life depends only on such an opinion! Whoever tries 
to hide behind the opinion of the old system is marked as at the parting 
of the roads, where the moment is ruled through fierce fatality! We will 
not be lazy when we investigate. At the same time we will keep our 
eyes open, and place everything in its right place, and mark it with 
especially thought-out remarks, in which we are real specialists! We 
had rather read the books from those times, which cover the most noble 
men with the atrocity of the modern "big-stick" of the greater states. 
This enthusiasm never touched us, and when the time comes we, too, will 
have a pointing finger ! 

We learned a good deal from Nietzsche. He read the old writings 
eagerly, where he invariably noticed the real point of the developing of 
the greater system, even when other writers contradicted his view-point. 
That was the art of meditation, — a man like Edgar Allan Poe wrote only 
weary stories — that is enough! Nietzsche wanted to establish only one 
kind of a school for sincere individuals, and therewith he felt compelled 
to do his duty. In this division, "Man Alone by Himself," he called 
attention to the individuals : How they should take themselves ! When- 
ever the man is alone, or when he belongs to a party and wears a hypo- 
crite's mask; at what time he has a friend, and what drives him to an 
illusion ; how he must read a philosophical book, and what he must con- 
clude from it ; how a man must avoid egotistical boastfulness, and never 
go farther than the visible point he is able to grasp ! Never to look for 
a point externally, because whatever we need for our lives we can find 
it at home. Charity begins here ! Just to make these points into opinions, 
then culture must progress! W T hy should we want that, and even more? 
Just because we owe all this to ourselves, regardless of our social classifi- 
cation! To go ahead fearlessly, regardless of where we will end! To 
keep the point of higher culture in mind forever! Never to try to 

93 



educate another so long as we are not willing to go the same road ! Never 
to look around so long as we follow our own inner belief ! 

In order to judge correctly the many hints, explanations and indi- 
cations, he strived, partly concealing his object to part the individuals 
entirely from organized society ! The free spirits did not always care to 
recognize this fact ! Therefore we do not wonder, when he wrote on the 
end of this marvelous division, "The Wanderer": 

"He who has attained intellectual emancipation to any extent cannot, for a 
long time, regard himself otherwise than as a wandered on the face of the earth 
— and not even as a traveler towards a final goal, for there is no such thing. But 
he certainly wants to observe and keep his eyes open to whatever actually hap- 
pens in the world; therefore he cannot attach his heart too firmly to anything 
individual; he must have in himself something wandering that takes pleasure in 
change and transitoriness. To be sure such a man will have bad nights, when he 
is weary and finds the gates of the town that should offer him rest closed; perhaps 
he may also find that, as in the East, the desert reaches to the gates, that wild 
beasts howl far and near, that a strong wind arises, and that robbers take away 
his beasts of burden. Then the dreadful night closes over him like a second 
desert upon the desert, and his heart grows weary of wandering. Then when the 
morning sun rises upon him, glowing like a Deity of anger, when the town is 
opened, he sees perhaps in the faces of the dwellers therein still more desert, 
uncleanliness, deceit, and inscurity than outsid the gates — and the day is almost 
worse than the night. Thus it may occasionally happen to the wanderer; but 
then there comes as compensation the delightful mornings of other lands and 
days, when already in the grey of the dawn he sees the throng of muses dancing 
by, close to him, in the mist of the mountain; when afterwards, in the symmetry 
of his antemeridian soul, he strolls silently under the trees, out of whose crest 
and leafy hiding-places all manner of good and bright things are flung at him, 
the gifts of all the free spirits who are at home in mountains, forests, and soli- 
tudes, and who, like himself, alternately merry and thoughtful, are wanderers 
and philosophers. Born of the secrets of the early dawn, they ponder the question 
how the day, between the hours of ten and twelve, can have such a pure, trans- 
parent, and gloriously cheerful countenance; they seek the ante-meridian phil- 
osophy." 

Nevertheless, in the midst of our careful reading, we are shook from 
an undescriptive Self-acknowledgment, which a freedom-fighter can 
hardly avoid. We, too, must make some similar maxim, through which 
we will be able to see ourselves as we are ! Never to be in haste, at least 
not to be so chattering as before! With this carefully thought-out sum- 
mary we will even think on the Chinamen, who honor their old writings 
with consideration! Should our intention be wisdom, then we have to 
keep tidy with all our life's power to the conquered part of cheerful 
humanity! Therewith we show our colors, and hope that we, too, give 
something for the enlightenment of the general understanding of 
Nietzsche's philosophy! If anyone asks us, "Why we did not explore 
the other books of Nietzsche," there can be only one answer: "We begin 
to work with small things for the great things. ' ' Should this writing be 
received with human friendliness, and support assured, then: nothing 
should keep us from devoting more time to the rest of his writings! 
This is my personal explanation, and I hope it will be understood as I 
mean it. 

Nietzsche never bothered himself whether if ever his trust of his 
innermost thirst for truth should be quenched! He went courageously 

94 



ahead, regardless of where he landed! For this conclusion we were on 
the guard at the very beginning of this marvelously written book, but 
we never quivered an eyelash! When he finished his work he secluded 
himself. He was true to his own words, even though he did not go on 
the recommended wandering. We meditated on this for a long time, and 
resolved to follow his example ! Our long years of wandering compen- 
sated us and we gained our request ! We found continuous change, self- 
command, regeneration, if you please, and — at last our precious knowl- 
edge masked itself before curious people ! Now we are ready with ease 
to face any fatality! 

HONOR, TO WHOM HONOR BELONGS! 



END. 



95 



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